Serotonergic Modulation of Cerebellar Function

描述（由申请人提供）：5-羟色胺（5-HT）是大脑中一种重要的神经调质，分布于小脑，这是一个与运动协调和运动学习密切相关的区域。尽管许多生理学研究描述了5-HT对小脑神经元的各种调节作用，但仍然没有有意义的解释5-HT调节如何改变电路水平的功能，进而改变行为。本研究拟探讨小脑5-HT对小鼠前庭眼反射（VOR）和视动反射（OKR）两种简单眼球运动的影响。这些眼球运动行为背后的神经回路已经被详细了解，并涉及小脑的絮状区域。其他实验将通过测量小脑皮质的输出细胞，即絮状浦肯野细胞，来检查5-HT对与VOR和OKR相关的神经信号的回路水平处理的影响。最后，我将研究小脑5-HT的作用，以诱导不同形式的VOR学习。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Serotonin (5-HT), an important neuromodulator in the brain, is found throughout the cerebellum, a region critically involved in motor coordination and motor learning. Despite numerous physiological studies describing various modulatory actions of 5-HT on cerebellar neurons, there is still no meaningful account of how 5-HT modulation alters circuit-level functioning and, in turn, modifies behavior. I propose to examine the effects of cerebellar 5-HT on the performance of two simple eye movements, the vestibulo-ocular reflex (VOR) and optokinetic reflex (OKR) in mice. The neural circuits underlying these oculomotor behaviors are known in detail and involve the floccular regions of the cerebellum. Additional experiments will examine the effects of 5-HT on circuit-level processing of neural signals related to the VOR and OKR by measuring the output cells of the cerebellar cortex, the floccular Purkinje cells. Lastly, I will investigate the role of cerebellar 5HT to the induction of different forms of VOR learning.