NEURAL MECHANISMS OF DIRECTIONAL ORIENTATION

描述（改编自申请人的摘要）：第二个五年 在 K02 的支持下，PI 希望继续他的职业生涯，重点是研究。 他的兴趣领域集中于潜在的神经生物学机制 空间认知和相关的学习形式。除了缓解 正常教学，该奖项也会给PI提供学习的机会 与拟议的研究和他的未来计划相关的几种新技术。 提出的实验将试图阐明空间如何 信息在哺乳动物大脑中进行处理，重点是 PI 先前识别和描述的头部方向 (HD) 细胞。它是 PI 的目标是确定感官信息如何转化为 Ahigh 水平认知信号@代表空间。在目标 1 和 2 中，PI 将 检查 HD 细胞信号是如何生成的。在目标 3 和 4 中， 将检查 HD 发射的前庭输入。目标 5 将探讨 定义 HD 细胞的 GABA 能中间神经元 = 放电模式。目标 6 检查用于维持稳定调谐曲线的线索 HD 细胞类型 动物进入了一个新的环境，而《目标 7》则侧重于不同环境之间的联系 HD 细胞和空间定向行为。最后，目标 8 检查 HD 细胞如何 对地球水平线以外的平面做出反应。这些实验的结果 将对理解大脑如何处理空间产生影响 信息，并且由于空间处理缺陷是 与年龄相关的认知障碍，了解这些障碍的本质 人类的损伤。

DESCRIPTION (adapted from applicant's abstract): With a second five years of K02 support, the PI wishes to continue his career with an emphasis on research. His areas of interest focus on the neurobiological mechanisms underlying spatial cognition and related forms of learning. In addition to relief from normal teaching, the award will also provide the PI the opportunity to learn several new techniques related to the proposed studies and his future plans. Experiments are proposed which will attempt to elucidate how spatial information is processed in the mammalian brain, with emphasis on the role of head direction (HD) cells previously identified and described by the PI. It is the PI's goal to determine how sensory information is transformed into a Ahigh level cognitive signal@ representing space. In Aims 1 and 2, the PI will examine how the HD cell signal is generated. In Aims 3 and 4, the role of vestibular inputs on HD firing will be examined. Aim 5 will explore the role of GABAergic interneurons in defining the HD cells= firing patterns. Aim 6 examines the types of cues HD cells used to maintain a stable tuning curve when the animal enters a novel environment, while Aim 7 focuses on the link between the HD cell and space-directed behaviors. Lastly, Aim 8 examines how HD cells respond to planes other than Earth horizontal. The results of these experiments will have implications for understanding how the brain processes spatial information, and since spatial processing deficits are characteristic of age-related cognitive impairments, to understand the nature of these impairments in humans.