Investigation of brain-wide connectivity and cortical population codes for long-term memory

长期记忆的全脑连接和皮质群体编码的研究

• 批准号: 2673868
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: University of Edinburgh
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Studentship
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2021 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=studentship-2673868
• 关键词: Investigation; brain; wide; connectivity; cortical

Memories are thought to be stored as traces distributed across the brain. How these memory traces are coordinated is a fundamental unsolved problem. This project aims to address this problem by investigating outputs from a brain structure called the entorhinal cortex (EC). This structure is of great interest as it receives signals from the hippocampus, which is important for initial learning, and sends outputs to diverse cortical targets that together are important for long-term memory. The proposed project involves carrying out experiments in rodents using advanced genetic and physiological methods to establish organising principles by which the entorhinal cortex coordinates neural activity within and between cortical regions. What transformations do cortical networks undergo as memories are formed? What is the role of the entorhinal cortex in coordinating these cortical network changes? To answer these questions we will first establish the principles with which neurons in EC distributes information to the neocortex. For this we will use a novel sequencing based high-throughput single cell projection analysis technique, MAPseq (Kebschull et al., 2016).These experiments will generate very large and rich datasets, which will help unravel the fundamental principles of the neural basis of memory. Moreover, the results will enable constructing new models of short and long-term memory acquisition that can advance artificial neural networks used in machine learning applications.

记忆被认为是以分布在大脑中的痕迹的形式存储的。这些记忆痕迹如何协调是一个基本的未解决的问题。该项目旨在通过研究称为内嗅皮层（EC）的大脑结构的输出来解决这个问题。这个结构非常有趣，因为它接收来自海马体的信号，这对初始学习很重要，并将输出发送到不同的皮质目标，这些目标对长期记忆很重要。拟议的项目涉及使用先进的遗传和生理方法在啮齿动物中进行实验，以建立内嗅皮层协调皮层区域内和之间的神经活动的组织原则。在记忆形成的过程中，大脑皮层网络经历了哪些转变？内嗅皮层在协调这些皮层网络变化中的作用是什么？为了回答这些问题，我们将首先建立EC中的神经元将信息分配给新皮层的原则。为此，我们将使用一种新的基于测序的高通量单细胞投影分析技术，MAPseq（Kebschull等人，2016).这些实验将产生非常大而丰富的数据集，这将有助于揭示记忆的神经基础的基本原理。此外，这些结果将有助于构建短期和长期记忆获取的新模型，从而推动机器学习应用中使用的人工神经网络。