Cortical mechanisms for the postnatal development of taste preference.

项目摘要 当动物从依赖母乳过渡到觅食和消费食物时，它们会经历 一大批新的促味剂这些经验通过一个过程来调节他们在以后生活中的口味偏好 这可能依赖于与味觉和进食相关的神经回路的可塑性。味觉皮层（gustatory cortex，GC） 参与处理味觉信息。它是品味驱动的行为和学习 味觉刺激的化学感觉和情感维度。早期使用促味剂的经验对 味觉偏好的发展或GC回路的成熟尚未被研究。 我们之前在不同感觉皮层的工作证明了抑制性神经元在大脑皮层中的核心作用。 经验依赖的可塑性和出生后的电路完善。在本提案中，我们将利用我们的 以前的工作，并着手研究如何成熟的抑制GC有助于表达 口味偏好 该提案的第一部分将确定口味偏好如何在产后过程中成熟 开发和评估味觉体验对味觉偏好调节的作用。我们 初步观察表明，有一个敏感期的经验依赖性调制的 口味偏好仅限于断奶和成年早期之间的几周。 我们还将评估GC中抑制回路成熟的时间过程及其对以下因素的敏感性： 有味觉的经验。最后，我们将评估抑制的成熟与 使用多种方法（包括酶促和化学发生）开发味觉偏好 抑制回路成熟的操纵。 这些研究将确定GC中抑制回路在味觉行为表达中的作用 喜好虽然潜在的机制学习的价值或物理线索与口味有联系， 在成年期进行了研究，导致产后发育中这种精细回路的机制已经 没有被描述。这些研究的结果将表明早期的食物经验在决定 在生活中的品味选择。

Project Summary As animals transition from relying on their mother’s milk to foraging and consuming foods, they experience a large variety of new tastants. These experiences regulate their taste preferences later in life through a process that likely relies on plasticity in neural circuits associated with taste and feeding. The gustatory cortex (GC) is involved in processing taste information. It is required for taste-motivated behaviors and for learning about the chemosensory and affective dimensions of gustatory stimuli. The effects of early experiences with tastants on the development of taste preferences or the maturation of GC circuits has not been investigated. Our previous work in a different sensory cortex demonstrated a central role for inhibitory neurons in experience-dependent plasticity and postnatal circuit refinement. In this proposal, we will take advantage of our previous work and set out to investigate how the maturation of inhibition in GC contributes to the expression of taste preferences. The first part of the proposal will determine how taste preferences mature over the course of postnatal development and assess the role of experience with tastants on the modulation of taste preferences. Our preliminary observations suggest that there is a sensitive period for the experience-dependent modulation of taste preferences that is restricted to the weeks between the time weaning and young adulthood. We will also assess the time course of maturation of inhibitory circuits in GC and their sensitivity to experience with tastants. Finally, we will assess the relationship between the maturation of inhibition and the development of taste preferences using a variety of approaches including enzymatic and chemogenetic manipulations of inhibitory circuits’ maturation. These studies will determine the role of inhibitory circuit in GC in the behavioral expression of taste preferences. While mechanisms underlying learning about the value or physical cues associated with tastes has been investigated in adulthood, the mechanisms leading to such a refined circuit in postnatal development have not been described. The results of these studies will indicate the role of early food experiences in determining taste-based choices throughout life.