Sensory pathways for stimulus detection during behavior

描述（由申请人提供）：动物，包括人类，使用涉及移动其传感器（手指，眼睛）的主动策略探索环境。这种行为的一个很好的例子是啮齿动物的主动搅拌。在主动拂动过程中，老鼠以刻板的方式移动胡须，与物体接触（主动触摸），以识别它们并探索环境。一个重要的问题是，大脑中的感觉系统必须检测与主动触摸相关的神经活动，将其与移动胡须引起的活动区分开来。触须通过三叉神经复合体中的初级感觉中继细胞传递这种感觉信息，三叉神经复合体产生两个主要的上行和对侧通路。一个神经支配丘脑，主要通向前脑（三叉神经丘脑）的新皮层，另一个神经支配中脑顶盖（三叉神经顶盖）的上级丘的深层。这两个上升通路在探测性拂动过程中检测主动触摸信号的作用知之甚少。我们认为，上级丘是一个主要的感觉中继，用于检测触摸信号在探索行为，通过区分运动相关和接触相关的活动。因此，在协议中，其众所周知的作用，定向到新的刺激，上级丘是一个重要组成部分的感觉回路负责检测的感觉刺激在积极的探索。这个项目有三个目标。第一个目标是确定上级丘细胞在搅拌运动和触摸过程中的反应特性。第二个目标是确定上级丘传入在驱动和/或调节搅拌反应中的作用。第三个目标是表征上级丘细胞的活动和响应特性，动物积极地移动他们的胡须，并在探索行为过程中检测行为相关的感官刺激。该研究项目的长期目标是揭示感觉检测和处理的神经基质，这与许多神经系统疾病直接相关。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Animals, including humans, explore the environment using active strategies that involve moving their sensors (fingers, eyes). An excellent example of this type of behavior is active whisking in rodents. During active whisking, rats move their whiskers in stereotyped ways making contact with objects (active touch) to identify them and to explore the environment. An important problem is that sensory systems in the brain must detect the neural activity related to active touch by distinguishing it from the activity caused by moving the whiskers. The whiskers transmit this sensory information through primary sensory relay cells in the trigeminal complex, which produce two major ascending and contralateral pathways. One innervates the thalamus, leading primarily to the neocortex in the forebrain (trigeminothalamic), and the other innervates the deep layers of the superior colliculus in the midbrain tectum (trigeminotectal). The role of these two ascending pathways in the detection of active touch signals during exploratory whisking is poorly understood. We propose that the superior colliculus is a major sensory relay that serves to detect touch signals during exploratory behavior by differentiating movement-related and contact-related activity. Therefore, in agreement with its well-known role in orienting to novel stimuli, the superior colliculus is an essential component of the sensory circuitry responsible for the detection of sensory stimuli during active exploration. There are three goals in this project. The first goal is to determine the response properties of superior colliculus cells during whisking movement and touch. The second goal is to determine the role of superior colliculus afferents in driving and/or modulating the whisking responses. The third goal is to characterize the activity and response properties of superior colliculus cells as animals actively move their whiskers and detect behaviorally relevant sensory stimuli during exploratory behavior. The long term goal of this research project is to reveal the neural substrates of sensory detection and processing, which has direct relevance to many neurological disorders.