Cortical mechanisms for the postnatal development of taste preference.

项目摘要 当动物从依赖母亲的乳汁过渡到觅食和消费时，它们经历了 各式各样的新口味。这些经历通过一个过程来调节他们在以后的生活中的口味偏好 这很可能依赖于与味觉和进食相关的神经回路的可塑性。味觉皮质(GC) 参与味觉信息的处理。它对于味觉驱动的行为和了解 味觉刺激的化学感觉和情感维度。早期与品尝者在一起的经历对 味觉偏好的发展或GC回路的成熟还没有被研究过。 我们之前在不同感觉皮层所做的工作证明了抑制性神经元在 经验依赖的可塑性和出生后回路的改进。在这项提案中，我们将利用我们的 之前的工作，并着手研究GC中抑制的成熟如何有助于 口味偏好。 该提案的第一部分将决定口味偏好在出生后的过程中如何成熟。 发展和评估与品尝者的经验对味觉偏好的调节作用。我们的 初步观察表明，存在一个经验依赖的调制敏感期。 口味偏好仅限于从断奶到成年这段时间内。 我们还将评估GC中抑制回路成熟的时间进程及其对 与品尝者相处的经验。最后，我们将评估成熟的抑制和 使用包括酶和化学发生在内的各种方法发展味觉偏好 抑制电路成熟的操作。 这些研究将确定GC中抑制回路在味觉行为表达中的作用 偏好。而与品味相关的价值或物理线索的学习背后的机制 在成年期被研究过，导致出生后发育如此精细的环路的机制 没有被描述过。这些研究的结果将表明早期的饮食体验在决定 终生以品味为基础的选择。

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.