V Ganglion activity in awake whisking rodents

描述（由申请人提供）：神经科学的一个重要目标是了解感觉运动整合-大脑如何处理感觉输入并使用它来控制运动。“主动触摸”行为是感觉运动整合的一个实验例子，“触觉”扫描模式是由躯体-感觉运动系统产生的最复杂的运动之一。然而，我们对任何物种中调节主动触觉的神经系统的功能组织的信息相对较少。啮齿类动物的拂动系统是研究主动触摸的一个有用的模型，因为它的解剖和生理特征很好。晶须的自适应控制需要稳定的输入流，这些输入流与晶须运动的性质、它们的开始、轨迹和终止有关。电生理数据表明，支配单个触须的初级传入纤维的集合可能编码了许多这些参数。然而，我们对这个系统中感觉编码的大部分知识来自于对麻醉动物被动触须位移的神经反应的研究。了解这个普遍存在的模型系统中的感觉处理过程，将通过描述清醒、行为良好的动物的一级神经元的放电特性来推进。我们已经开发了一种促进此类研究的准备，并建议使用它来表征啮齿动物三叉神经节一级神经元编码与主动触摸相关的感觉输入的机制。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): An important goal of neuroscience is to understand sensorimotor integration-how the brain processes sensory input and uses it to control movement. "Active touch" behavior is an experimentally accessible example of sensorimotor integration and "haptic" scanning patterns are among the most complex movements generated by the somato-sensorimotor system. However, we have relatively little information about the functional organization of neural systems mediating active touch in any species. The rodent whisking system is a useful model for the study of active touch because its anatomy and physiology are well characterized. The adaptive control of whisking requires a steady stream of input related to the properties of whisker movements, their onset, trajectory and termination. Electrophysiological data suggests that the ensemble of primary afferent fibers innervating a single vibrissa may encode many of these parameters. However, most of our knowledge of sensory coding in this system comes from studies of neural responses to passive vibrissa displacements in anesthetized animals. Understanding sensory processing in this ubiquitous model system would be advanced by characterizing the discharge properties of first order neurons in awake, behaving animals. We have developed a preparation which facilitates such studies and propose to use it to characterize the mechanisms by which sensory inputs associated with active touch are encoded in first order trigeminal ganglion neurons of rodents.