Neuronal Principles Underlying Flexible Behaviour

当面临新的选择时，记忆可以指导决策。对不同事件的信息进行概括和整合，可以做出超越以往经验的快速推论。这一过程需要大脑中的知识表示，以促进快速计算。有人提出，将信息存储在认知地图中--在环境中用于定向的概念的地图般的心理表征--可能支持这种灵活的行为。然而，这些地图是如何在大脑中表现出来并帮助指导行为的，人们仍然知之甚少。在我的博士项目中，我的目标是为理解这一神经元过程做出贡献。首先，我将开发一种啮齿动物的行为范式，允许在受控环境中清楚地读出目前相关的信息集。然后，我将使用这项任务从大脑区域获得神经元活动的记录，这些区域据报道参与了认知地图的表征，并牵涉到决策和导航过程，在清醒的行为动物中。更好地了解认知地图的出现和组织，以及不同大脑区域对这些过程的相对贡献，对于实现对大脑如何表示信息和我们如何在面临新问题时做出决定至关重要。BBRSC研究重点领域在拟议的研究项目：脑科学和心理健康了解大脑是我们这个时代最大的智力挑战之一。这种理解将对预防和治疗神经系统疾病产生潜在影响，这使其成为一项值得接受的挑战。通过脑科学计划，研究人员正在努力更多地了解正常的大脑和感官是如何工作的，以及哪里出了问题和体内的why.www.bbsrc.ac.uk/research/programmes-networks/cross-councilAdvanced(整个动物)技术。这项工作的一个主要组成部分涉及开发和应用完整的、活的受保护动物(如1986年动物(科学程序)法案所定义的)的复杂的生理、免疫学、药理学、行为观察或实验，以了解正常和异常的生物/心理mechanisms.www.bbsrc.ac.uk/skills/investing-doctoral-training/strategic-skillsWUB，

When confronted with new choices, memories can guide decisions. Generalising and integrating information across events enables quick inferences that go beyond previous experience. This process requires a representation of knowledge in the brain that facilitates rapid computations. It has been suggested that storing information in cognitive maps - map-like mental representations of concepts used for orientation within an environment - might support such flexible behaviour. However, how these maps are represented in the brain and help to guide behaviour remains poorly understood. In my doctoral project, I aim to contribute to the understanding of this neuronal process. Firstly, I will develop a rodents' behavioural paradigm that allows for a clear readout of the sets of information currently relevant, in a controlled environment. Then, I will use this task to obtain recordings of neuronal activity from brain regions reported to be involved in cognitive maps representations and implicated in decision-making and navigation processes, in awake behaving animals. A better understanding of the emergence and organisation of cognitive maps, and the relative contribution of different brain regions to these processes is essential to achieving a multi-level understanding of how the brain represents information and we make decisions when confronted with new problems.BBRSC research priority areas addressed in the proposed research project:Brain Science and Mental HealthUnderstanding the brain is one of the greatest intellectual challenges of our time. The potential impact such understanding would have on preventing and treating nervous system disorders makes it a challenge worth taking on. Through the brain science programme researchers are working to understand more about how the normal brain and the senses work, as well as what goes wrong and why.www.bbsrc.ac.uk/research/programmes-networks/cross-councilAdvanced in vivo (whole animal) techniquesA major component of the work involves developing and applying sophisticated physiological, immunological, pharmacological, behavioural observation or experimentation in whole, living protected animals (as defined in the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986) in order to understand normal and abnormal biological/psychological mechanisms.www.bbsrc.ac.uk/skills/investing-doctoral-training/strategic-skillsWUB, ENWW