Neural Ensemble Codes in Drosophila Olfaction

超出所提供的空间。开发了新的实验技术，通过光来监测和操纵体内遗传限制的神经元群体。这些技术将用于研究果蝇（Drosophila melanogaster）嗅觉系统的信息处理。细胞类型特异性启动子将遗传编码的光学传感器和效应器靶向四个突触耦合处理层中的神经元：1）嗅觉受体神经元，其位于感觉表面并投射到触角叶，脊椎动物嗅球的类似物; 2）触角叶的局部抑制性中间神经元; 3）将嗅觉信息从触角叶传递到蘑菇体的投射神经元，蘑菇体是脊椎动物嗅觉皮层的类似物; 4）肯扬细胞，蘑菇体的内在神经元。气味诱发的神经活动模式将通过光学显微镜在这些基因突出的处理阶段中的每一个可视化。以这种创新策略为核心，将解决针对多层神经网络的基本操作原理的三个具体目标：1）通过比较不同气味的神经表征来表征四个嗅觉处理阶段中每个阶段的编码格式。2)映射规则，涉及这些代码将阐明跟踪气味表示跨阶段。3)在联合收割机结合光学成像和行为分析的实验中，将研究表达抽象、分类和行为内涵的神经符号的计算起源、物理形式和语义内容。这些实验的重点将是在神经基板上附加的享乐价的气味，并在其修改的经验。并行光学读出和非常容易处理的实验系统的结合为理解细胞甚至分子方面的集体网络特性提供了机会，从而超越了目前将神经科学分为分子、细胞和系统分支的一些界限。这种统一的理解将告知神经或精神疾病的发病机制，并揭示旨在改变网络功能的干预措施的潜在分子靶点。性能现场=

EXCEED THE SPACE PROVIDED. Novel experimental technologies were developed to monitor and manipulate, through light, genetically circumscribed populations of neurons in vivo. These technologies will be harnessed to study information processing in the olfactory system of the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster. Cell-type specific promoters will target genetically encoded optical sensors and effectors to neurons in four synaptically coupled processing layers: 1) To olfactory receptor neurons, which are located at the sensory surface and project to the antennal lobe, the analog of the vertebrate olfactory bulb; 2) to local inhibitory interneurons of the antennal lobe; 3) to projection neurons that relay olfactory information from the antennal lobe to the mushroom body, the analog of the vertebrate olfactory cortex; and 4) to Kenyon cells, the intrinsic neurons of the mushroom body. Odor-evoked neural activity patterns will be visualized by optical microscopy at each of these genetically highlighted processing stages. With this innovative strategy at their core, three specific aims directed at the fundamental operational principles of a multilayered neural network will be addressed: 1) The coding formats at each of the four olfactory processing stages will be characterized by comparing the neural representations of different odors. 2) The mapping rules that relate these codes will be elucidated by tracing odor representations across stages. 3) The computational origin, physical form, and semantic content of neural symbols that express abstractions, classifications, and behavioral connotations will be studied in experiments that combine optical imaging with behavioral assays. The focus of these experiments will be on the neuronal substrate for attaching hedonic valence to odors, and on its modification by experience. The combination of a parallel optical read-out and an eminently tractable experimental system opens an opportunity to understand collective network properties in cellular or even molecular terms, and to transcend thereby some of the boundaries that currently divide neuroscience into molecular, cellular, and systems branches. Such a unified understanding will inform pathogenetic mechanisms in neurological or psychiatric disorders and disclose potential molecular targets for interventions aimed at altering network function. PERFORMANCE SITE ========================================Section End===========================================