Thalamic Contributions to the developing EEG

项目总结/摘要 尽管新生儿脑电图（EEG）已有65年以上的历史，但我们对节律性脑电的理解仍然存在不足。 与正常发育和脑损伤相关的皮质活动模式仍然主要是推测性的。的 目前项目的长期目标是创建一个发育活动图谱，其中异常EEG模式 与大脑区域和神经元类型的特定破坏相匹配。第一步骤 为了达到这个目标，需要一种未麻醉的临床前模型， 新生儿大脑皮层的活动，其中细胞可以被遗传操纵，以及对大脑皮层的潜在影响。 严格探测皮层回路。通过在体内通过皮层深度测量活性， 丘脑网络在发展中的新生啮齿动物，我们将提供深入了解电路的变化， 人类胎儿丘脑-皮质发育的基础，为婴儿皮质下损伤的未来研究提供信息， 非人类灵长类动物通过操纵丘脑神经元的活动，我们将分析不同的贡献， 的丘脑中继和抑制神经元的成熟的特定功能的脑电图共同 发展人类和啮齿动物。考虑到脆弱的高危新生儿的成像和诊断挑战， EEG有可能成为一种有价值且廉价的床边诊断工具。更好地了解 皮质活动发展的控制将告知新生儿脑损伤后的诊断， 有针对性地治疗认知和智力残疾，这往往会导致。

Project Summary/Abstract Despite over 65 years of electroencephalography (EEG) in newborn infants, our understanding of the rhythmic cortical activity patterns associated with normal development and brain injury remains largely speculative. The long term goal of the current project is to create a developmental activity atlas in which abberant EEG patterns in the at-risk newborn are matched to specific disruptions in brain areas and neuronal types. A first step towards this goal requires an un-anesthetized preclinical model with demonstrated homology to fetal and neonatal human cortical activity in which cells can be genetically manipulated and the underlying effects on cortical circuits rigorously probed. By measuring activity in vivo through the depth of cortex and corresponding thalamic networks in developing neonatal rodents, we will provide insight into the circuit changes that may underlie human fetal thalamo-cortical development to inform future studies of subcortical injury in infants and non-human primates. By manipulating the activity of thalamic neurons we will assay the distinct contributions of the thalamic relay and inhibitory neurons to the maturation of specific features of the EEG common to developing humans and rodents. Given the challenges of imaging and diagnosis in the fragile at-risk newborn, EEG has the potential to be a valuable and inexpensive bedside diagnostic tool. An improved understanding of the control of cortical activity development will inform diagnosis after neonatal brain injury and improve targeting of treatments for the cognitive and intellectual disability that often results.