Hippocampal inhibitory control of contextual fear learning

描述(由申请人提供)：由大脑回路病理引起的适应不良恐惧反应被广泛地与几种精神障碍有关，如创伤后应激障碍(PTSD)、焦虑和恐慌症。因此，这些疾病的临床解决方案需要更多地了解实现这些记忆功能的神经回路的基本结构和功能。在这里，我们建议应用新技术-细胞分辨率功能神经成像和特定细胞类型的基因识别操作 表现良好的小鼠的海马区--用于研究背景恐惧的学习和储存。我们的结果将使我们对学习和记忆的方式有基本的了解，并为治疗和康复恐惧、焦虑和记忆障碍中的适应不良恐惧反应提出具体的目标。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Maladaptive fear responses due to brain circuit pathology have been widely implicated in several psychiatric disorders such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety, and panic disorders. Clinical solutions to these disorders thus require a greater understanding of the basic structure and function of neural circuits implementing these memory functions. Here we propose to apply new technologies - cellular-resolution functional neural imaging and cell type-specific manipulations of genetically identified hippocampal circuits in behaving mice - for studying contextual fear learning and storage. Our result will inform our basic understanding of how we learn and remember, and suggest specific targets for treatment and rehabilitation of maladaptive fear responses in disorders of fear, anxiety, and memory.