V Ganglion activity in awake whisking rodents

描述(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可及的例子，而“触觉”扫描模式是躯体-感觉运动系统产生的最复杂的动作之一。然而，我们对任何物种中调节主动触摸的神经系统的功能组织的信息相对较少。啮齿动物的搅拌系统是研究主动触摸的有用模型，因为它的解剖学和生理学特征很好。搅拌的自适应控制需要与晶须运动的特性、其开始、轨迹和终止有关的稳定的输入流。电生理学数据表明，支配单个触觉的初级传入纤维集合可能编码其中的许多参数。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觉移位的神经反应的研究。通过表征清醒的行为动物的一阶神经元的放电特性，将有助于理解这个无处不在的模型系统中的感觉处理。我们已经开发了一种促进这类研究的准备工作，并建议使用它来表征与主动触摸相关的感觉输入在啮齿类动物的三叉神经节一级神经元中编码的机制。

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.