Pre-motor Neural Circuits for Exploratory Movement

摘要/项目摘要 动物为了探索外部物体而进行的动作称为探索性动作。这个 啮齿动物的触觉探索是一种突出的探索运动模式。众所周知， 快速感觉反馈、注意力、记忆和其他因素调节着胡须运动的模式 不同的行为背景。然而，调节这类任务的精确神经回路机制-或者 胡须运动模式的上下文相关控制在很大程度上仍不清楚。通过我们的单触觉 晶须前马达电路映射研究和正在进行的功能表征，我们现在已经确定 一组参与感觉反馈反射的运动前神经元，也发现了可能的运动前神经元 搅拌振荡器(节律)神经元。这种竞争性更新的目标是确定体内的 这些已识别的运动前神经元的活动模式(感觉反馈和节律性运动前神经元 神经元)在不同的行为环境中，映射它们的突触前输入(即识别运动前 神经元，或前2运动神经元)，并开始揭示关键的2前运动神经元是如何传递上下文相关的 胡须运动的调制。我们将使用病毒基因交叉标记策略的组合， 基于光学电极阵列的体内光敏前运动神经元记录，建模，无毒病毒 多行为任务中前2运动神经元的跨突触标记和操纵实现 我们的目标。

ABSTRACT/PROJECT SUMMARY Movements performed by animals in order to explore external objects are called exploratory movements. The rodent whisker-mediated tactile exploration is a prominent model of exploratory movements. It is known that fast sensory feedback, attention, memory and other factors modulate the patterns of whisker movements in different behavioral contexts. However, the precise neural circuits mechanisms that mediate such task- or context-dependent control of whisker movement patterns remain largely unknown. Through our monosynaptic whisker premotor circuit mapping studies and on-going functional characterizations, we have now identified a group of premotor neurons mediating a sensory feedback reflex, and also discovered the putative premotor whisking oscillator (rhythmogenic) neurons. The goal of this competitive renewal is to determine the in vivo activity patterns of these identified premotor neurons (sensory feedback and the rhythmogenic premotor neurons) in different behavior contexts, mapping their presynaptic inputs (i.e. identifying pre-premotor neurons, or pre2motor neurons) and begin to unveil how key pre2motor neurons convey context-dependent modulation of whisker movements. We will use a combination of viral genetic intersectional labeling strategy, in vivo optetrode-array based recording of photo-identified premotor neurons, modeling, non-toxic viral mediated transsynaptic labeling and manipulation of pre2motor neurons in multiple behavioral tasks to achieve our goal.