CONNECTIONS OF THE LIMBIC SYSTEM AND HYPOTHALAMUS

这个子项目是许多研究子项目中利用 资源由NIH/NCRR资助的中心拨款提供。子项目和 调查员(PI)可能从NIH的另一个来源获得了主要资金， 并因此可以在其他清晰的条目中表示。列出的机构是 该中心不一定是调查人员的机构。 这项拟议工作的长期目标是以高分辨率识别和描述哺乳动物大脑中神经回路的结构和化学特征，这些神经回路是维持个体生存的基本驱动力和情绪的基础，并确保与饥饿和口渴、防御性(战斗或逃跑)行为、生殖(性行为和父母行为)以及睡眠/觉醒周期相关的物种的生存。以前的工作认为下丘脑是该回路中的一个关键节点，并详细描述了其内侧半部与脑下垂体腺、大脑半球和脑干/脊髓的轴突输入/输出关系。这项拟议的工作旨在以系统的方式完成并扩展对外侧下丘脑的类似分析，并基于这样的假设，即外侧下丘脑由两个根本不同的组成部分组成，一个是背侧区域，向大部分中枢神经系统进行广泛、弥漫的投射，另一个是周围的分隔区域，分为大约20多个部分，向特定功能系统提供非常特定的投射模式。这三个具体目标是，a)完成第一阶段，对周围分隔区域的区域分析；b)开始第二阶段，神经细胞类型分析，从某些明显与食欲调节密切相关的下丘脑外侧区域开始；以及c)促进将神经解剖学数据输入网络上的神经信息学工作台。这项研究是基于在大鼠中联合使用实验性轴突内通路追踪方法和杂交组织化学方法来研究神经递质相关基因的细胞类型特异性表达。有一个多世纪的丰富的临床和实验历史，下丘脑以及与下丘脑相互作用的大脑部分的紊乱，会根据部位的不同而产生肥胖或厌食症，对心血管和内分泌(例如血糖)测量、焦虑和情绪、攻击性行为、性行为和生理(例如月经周期)以及正常睡眠和清醒模式的干扰。这项拟议的研究旨在澄清非常不了解的神经回路，这些神经回路调节正常的进食、防御、生殖和睡眠/觉醒行为；随后将了解它们的病理。

This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. The long-term objective of the proposed work is to identify and characterize at high resolution the structure and chemistry of neural circuits in the mammalian brain that underlie the basic drives and emotions keeping individuals alive and assuring survival of the species associated with hunger and thirst, defensive (fight or flight) behavior, reproductive (sexual and parental) behavior, and the sleep/wake cycle. Previous work identified the hypothalamus as a critical node in this circuitry, and characterized in detail axonal input/output relationships of its medial half with the pituitary gland, cerebral hemispheres, and brainstem/spinal cord. The proposed work is designed to complete in a systematic way, and to extend, a similar analysis of the lateral hypothalamus, and is based on the hypothesis that the lateral hypothalamus consists of two fundamentally different components, a dorsal region with widespread, diffuse projections to much of the central nervous system, and a surrounding compartmentalized region divided into some two dozen parts with very specific projection patterns to specific functional systems. The three specific aims are, a) to complete a phase one, regional analysis of the surrounding compartmentalized region; b) to begin a phase two, neuronal cell type analysis, starting with certain lateral hypothalamic regions apparently involved critically in food appetite regulation; and c) to facilitate the entry of neuroanatomical data into neuroinformatics workbenches on the web. The research is based on the combined use in rats of experimental intra-axonal pathway tracing methods, and hybridization histochemistry for the cell type-specific expression of neurotransmitter-related genes. There is a rich clinical and experimental history, dating back over a century, that disturbances of the hypothalamus, and parts of the brain interacting with the hypothalamus, produce depending on localization either obesity or anorexia, profound effects on cardiovascular and endocrine (for example, blood glucose) measures, anxiety and mood, aggressive behavior, sexual behavior and physiology (for example, the menstrual cycle), and disturbances of normal sleep and wakefulness patterns. The proposed research is designed to clarify very poorly understood neural circuits that mediate normal ingestive, defensive, reproductive, and sleep/wake behaviors; understanding their pathology will follow.