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A novel channel of information transmission in the brain: correlations between the activities of medullary neurons encode behaviorally relevant stimuli in weakly electric fish

大脑中信息传输的新通道：髓质神经元活动之间的相关性编码弱电鱼的行为相关刺激

基本信息

批准号：
328981503
负责人：
Dr. Volker Hofmann
金额：
--
依托单位：
Department of Physiology
依托单位国家：
德国
项目类别：
Research Fellowships
财政年份：
2016
资助国家：
德国
起止时间：
2015-12-31 至 2018-12-31
项目状态：
已结题

来源：
https://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/328981503?language=en
关键词：
novel channel information transmission brain

项目摘要

We rely on our senses in almost every aspect of our everyday live, yet our understanding of how the brain processes sensory stimuli in order to generate reliable behavior is very limited. As the activity of the single neuron typically displays substantial variability, the generation of robust behavioral responses is thought to be achieved by combining the activities of neural populations (i.e. population coding). To investigate population coding, scientists have recorded from many neurons simultaneously which revealed that the activities of neurons are often correlated, both in terms of their average response to a stimulus (i.e. signal correlations) as well in terms of their variabilities (i.e. noise correlations). While it is generally agreed that correlations impact coding, whether they are beneficial or detrimental is still focus of intense debates within the scientific community. Understanding how correlated activity affects coding is furthermore complicated by the fact that correlations are not fixed but change depending on sensory and behavioral context or the internal state of the brain. This plasticity however allows for the interesting hypothesis that correlations themselves could convey information about sensory input and constitute an additional channel of information transmission in the brain that works independent of single neuron attributes (e.g. firing rate). However, to this day this theory remains experimentally untested. During my research fellowship, I will test this hypothesis in the electrosensory system of the weakly electric fish Apteronotus leptorhynchus, a South-American Gymnotid species that navigates and communicates by means of an electric field that is actively generated and constantly surrounds its body. Electrosensory neurons within the medulla are known to display strong correlations. Based on my preliminary data, I hypothesize that noise correlations gradually encode behaviorally relevant stimulus attributes and thus providing an additional channel of information transmission in the brain. After a thorough characterization, I will then elucidate the nature of the neural circuits that enable this novel coding mechanism.Previous work has shown that many scientific breakthroughs were achieved by working on model animals with a relatively simple and well described nervous system and well-characterized natural stimuli, which all apply to Apteronotus leptorhynchus. Furthermore, the functional principles and molecular machinery of this nervous system are similar to those found in higher vertebrates including humans. Consequently, I expect that my findings will have a broad applicability to other model systems and brain areas and will be transformative towards understanding of how correlated activity impacts population coding.

我们在日常生活的几乎每个方面都依赖于我们的感官，但我们对大脑如何处理感官刺激以产生可靠行为的理解非常有限。由于单个神经元的活动通常表现出很大的可变性，因此认为通过组合神经群体的活动（即群体编码）来实现鲁棒行为响应的生成。为了研究群体编码，科学家们同时记录了许多神经元的活动，这表明神经元的活动通常是相关的，无论是在它们对刺激的平均反应（即信号相关性）方面，还是在它们的变异性（即噪声相关性）方面。虽然人们普遍认为相关性会影响编码，但它们是有益的还是有害的仍然是科学界激烈争论的焦点。理解相关活动如何影响编码是更加复杂的，因为相关性不是固定的，而是根据感觉和行为环境或大脑的内部状态而变化。然而，这种可塑性允许一个有趣的假设，即相关性本身可以传递关于感觉输入的信息，并构成大脑中独立于单个神经元属性（例如放电率）的额外信息传输通道。然而，直到今天，这一理论仍然未经实验验证。在我的研究奖学金期间，我将在弱电鱼类Apteronotus leptorhynchus的电感觉系统中测试这一假设，Apteronotus leptorhynchus是一种南美洲的裸甲藻物种，它通过积极产生并不断围绕其身体的电场进行导航和交流。已知髓质内的电感觉神经元显示出强相关性。基于我的初步数据，我假设，噪声相关性逐渐编码行为相关的刺激属性，从而提供了一个额外的渠道，在大脑中的信息传输。经过彻底的表征，我将阐明的神经回路，使这种新的编码机制的性质。以前的工作已经表明，许多科学突破是通过一个相对简单的和良好的描述神经系统和良好的自然刺激，这都适用于Apteronotus leptorhynchus模型动物的工作。此外，这种神经系统的功能原理和分子机制与包括人类在内的高等脊椎动物中发现的相似。因此，我希望我的发现将对其他模型系统和大脑区域具有广泛的适用性，并将对理解相关活动如何影响群体编码产生变革性影响。