Synaptic and Circuit Mechanisms of Pheromonal Learning

描述（由申请人提供）：与其他人的社会经验的记忆可能是非常强大的，特别是那些在高度唤醒状态下产生的，如生殖接触。然而，大脑储存社会经验信息的方式仍然是个谜。我们的建议的广泛目标是定义在成年信息素印记期间发生的神经变化，这是啮齿动物交配引发的一种有效的个体识别记忆形式。我们的目的是建立精确的突触机制和回路水平的影响化学感觉记忆痕迹灌输性经验。我们首先使用遗传工具荧光标记交配期间由种马信息素激活的细胞，允许在离体细胞电生理学感觉体验后对这些神经元进行有针对性的分析（目的1）。我们还开发了新的方法来可视化学习如何影响行为过程中的信息素处理电路，这最终应该有助于阐明更广泛的社会行为的神经基础（目标2）。总之，这项工作的桥梁互补的细胞和网络规模提供了一个长期存在的模型的化学感觉学习的新观点。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Memories of social experiences with other individuals can be extremely powerful, especially those produced during heightened arousal states such as reproductive encounters. The way the brain stores information about social experience, however, remains enigmatic. The broad goal of our proposal is to define the neural changes that occur during adult pheromonal imprinting, a potent form of individual recognition memory triggered by mating in rodents. We aim to establish the precise synaptic mechanisms and circuit-level effects of the chemosensory memory trace instilled by sexual experience. We first use genetic tools for fluorescently tagging the cells activated by stud pheromones during mating, allowing targeted analysis of these neurons after sensory experience with ex vivo cellular electrophysiology (Aim 1). We also develop novel approaches for visualizing how learning affects pheromone processing circuits during behavior, which should ultimately help illuminate the neural underpinnings of a much wider range of social behaviors (Aim 2). Together, this work bridges complementary cellular and network scales to provide new views of a long- standing model of chemosensory learning.