Imaging neuromodulation during locomotor ontogeny

描述（由申请人提供）：神经调节是非常重要的，因为它可以控制神经元相互作用的方式。从最简单到最复杂的神经过程，无论是运动还是情感，都是如此。迄今为止，对脊椎动物神经调节的研究主要使用药理学工具，其中药物被应用，其细胞和突触的后果是电生理学监测。然而，这些研究没有提供关于含有这些化学物质的细胞的活动模式的直接信息，也没有提供这些活动的真正行为后果。该研究项目计划利用斑马鱼（Danio rerio）中可用的优雅成像和遗传工具，在脊椎动物制备中获得前所未有的神经调节。斑马鱼有望在运动控制及其发展的各个方面成为一个强大的模型系统，本项目打算通过关注下行调节中心的作用来利用其优势。因此，本研究的目的有三个方面：1)识别和分类三种潜在的神经调节剂，血清素、多巴胺和去甲肾上腺素的发展；2)在诱导轴向运动行为中观察它们各自神经元的活动；3)在体内干扰这些神经元的活动并监测行为后果。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Neuromodulation is extremely important as it can govern the way neurons interact with one another. This is true from the simplest to the most complex neural processes, be it locomotion or emotion. Investigations into vertebrate neuromodulation to date have primarily used pharmacological tools, where drugs are bath applied and their cellular and synaptic consequences are monitored electrophysiologically. However, these studies provide no direct information about the activity patterns of the cells that contain these chemicals or what the real behavioral consequences of that activity may be. This research project plans to gain unprecedented access to neuromodulation in a vertebrate preparation using the elegant imaging and genetic tools available in the zebrafish, Danio rerio. The zebrafish is poised to become a powerful model system in all aspects of motor control and its development and this project intends to capitalize on its advantages by focusing on the role of descending modulatory centers. Thus, the aim of this proposal is three-fold: 1) to identify and catalogue the development of three potential neuromodulators, serotonin, dopamine and noradrenaline, 2) to visualize the activity of their respective neurons during elicited axial motor behaviors, and 3) to perturb the activity of these neurons in vivo and monitor the behavioral consequences.