Sleep Based Memory Consolidation in Juvenile Zebra Finch

项目摘要 睡眠被认为在巩固多种形式的记忆方面发挥了重要作用， 发展睡眠的短暂中断通常会导致学习技能行为的延迟和损失。而 研究在理解睡眠在海马依赖性学习中的作用方面取得了很大进展， 外显记忆，睡眠如何影响参与学习知觉和程序的突触回路 记忆仍然知之甚少。鸣禽提供了一个无与伦比的机会，研究睡眠的基础 巩固熟练的运动行为。幼年鸣禽通过每天大量的 练习，到成年时产生了数万种表演。日常的、以反馈为导向的改进 假设在夜间睡眠期间巩固，使新的声音探索， 通过发展不断完善歌曲表演。我的博士前研究旨在确定 突触回路参与睡眠巩固的歌曲和长期影响的短暂中断 在这些回路中的变化通过结合体内药理学操作和机器 基于学习的方法，分离和分析歌唱行为的变化，我已经确定至少 一个是控制基于睡眠的复杂运动行为巩固的核团。剩余的工作要做 在F99阶段将集中在个别前运动突触电路的具体贡献， 突触特异性药理学结合途径特异性化学遗传学。在F99阶段， 我将继续研究意想不到的发现，以确定歌曲多样性在配偶选择中的进化相关性。 本提案的K00阶段将提供一个具体的计划，以寻找理想的导师和研究环境， 提高我的知识和技术技能的神经入侵和传播的病毒，导致产生 用于有效解剖神经回路的新型病毒载体。在一起，研究和培训详细 在这两个阶段的建议将允许我实现我的长期目标，工程先进的工具， 了解分子，细胞，和突触的基础上学习复杂的运动行为作为终身 首席调查员

Project Summary Sleep is thought to play a significant contribution in the consolidation of multiple forms of memories during development. Transient disruptions of sleep often lead to delays and losses in learned skilled behaviors. While research has made great progress in understanding the role of sleep in the hippocampal dependent learning of explicit memories, how sleep influences the synaptic circuits involved in learning perceptual and procedural memories is still poorly understood. Songbirds provide an unmatched opportunity to study sleep based consolidation of skilled motor behaviors. Juvenile songbirds learn their courtship song through extensive daily practice, producing tens of thousands of renditions by adulthood. Daily, auditory-feedback guided improvements in song are hypothesized to be consolidated nightly during sleep, enabling renewed vocal exploration and continued refinement of song performances through development. My predoctoral research seeks to identify the synaptic circuits involved in sleep-based consolidation of song and the long-term impact of transient disruptions in these circuits during song development. By combining in vivo pharmacological manipulations with machine learning-based approaches for segregating and analyzing changes in singing behavior, I have identified at least one nuclei governing the sleep-based consolidation of complex motor behaviors. Remaining work to be done during the F99 phase will focus on the specific contributions of individual premotor synaptic circuits using synapse-specific pharmacology in conjunction with pathway specific chemogenetics. Also during the F99 phase, I will follow up on unexpected findings to determine the evolutionary relevance of song diversity in mate choice. The K00 phase of this proposal will provide a specific plan to find an ideal mentor and research environment for enhancing my knowledge and technical skills of neuroinvasion and propagation of viruses leading to generation of novel viral vectors for the effective dissection of neural circuits. Together, the research and training detailed in the two phases of this proposal will allow me to achieve my long-term goal of engineering sophisticated tools to understand the molecular, cellular, and synaptic basis of learned complex motor behaviors as a tenured principal investigator.