Pre-motor Neural Circuits for Exploratory Movement

摘要/项目总结 动物为了探索外部物体而进行的运动被称为探索运动。的 啮齿动物胡须介导的触觉探索是探索运动的突出模型。已知的是 快速的感觉反馈、注意力、记忆力和其他因素调节了胡须运动的模式， 不同的行为背景。然而，精确的神经回路机制，调解这样的任务-或 胡须运动模式的上下文相关控制仍然是未知的。通过我们的单突触 触须前运动电路映射研究和正在进行的功能表征，我们现在已经确定 一组运动前神经元介导的感觉反馈反射，也发现了假定的运动前 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 这些被识别的前运动神经元的活动模式（感觉反馈和节律性前运动神经元）。 神经元），映射它们的突触前输入（即识别前运动前 神经元，或前2运动神经元），并开始揭示关键的前2运动神经元如何传达上下文相关的信息。 胡须运动的调制。我们将采用病毒基因交叉标记相结合的策略， 基于光识别的前运动神经元的体内光电极阵列记录，建模，无毒病毒 介导的跨突触标记和操纵前2运动神经元在多个行为任务，以实现 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.