Plasticity in the CNS of blind fish after eye regeneration

总结 神经元重组是功能恢复的关键步骤，无论是在损伤后还是作为反应 疾病。在我们的研究培训计划中，我们将使用一种新的动物模型来解决神经问题。 视觉回路的重组。墨西哥丽脂鲤提供了一个特别新颖的窗口， 网络重塑，因为它是现存的两种现成的形式：一个视觉河流居住（表面鱼） 形式和洞穴居住形式（洞穴鱼）。它与斑马鱼密切相关，所有的技术都用于此 斑马鱼可以用于丽鱼。成年洞穴鱼没有眼睛和相应的视觉神经 结构严重减少。然而，眼睛的发育是在胚胎发生期间开始的， 随后，透镜停止，经历程序性细胞死亡，眼睛的其余部分退化， 沉入轨道然而，有可能通过以下方式挽救眼睛和相应的视觉回路： 将胚胎表面鱼透镜移植到退化的洞穴鱼眼睛中。我们将使用神经解剖学， 行为和钙成像来测量盲洞穴鱼类大脑中发生的变化， 发展操纵我们的中心假设是，发育中的视顶盖回路 洞穴鱼是健壮的，能接受连贯的视觉信息，因此体内平衡机制将允许 for the emergence出现of visual视觉codes代码.我们的目标是测试视顶盖的延展性 在发育过程中对视觉输入作出反应的电路。为了实现这一目标，我们将训练两名 本科生，一名硕士生和一名博士生，以及来自一个 新泽西州纽瓦克的特许学校。

Summary Neuronal reorganization is a critical step in the recovery of function, whether after injury or as in response to disease. In our research training program, we will use a new animal model to address neural reorganization in the visual circuit. The fish Astyanax mexicanus provides a particularly novel window into network remodeling because it is extant in two readily available forms: a visual river-dwelling (surface fish) form and a cave-dwelling form (cavefish). It is closely related to zebrafish, and all techniques use in this zebrafish can be used in Astyanax. Adult cavefish lack eyes and the corresponding visual neural structures are severely reduced. Eye development is nevertheless initiated during embryogenesis, but later arrests with the lens undergoing programmed cell death and the rest of the eye degenerating and sinking into the orbit. However, it is possible to rescue the eye, and the corresponding visual circuits, by transplanting an embryonic surface fish lens into a degenerating cavefish eye. We will use neuroanatomy, behavior and calcium imaging to measure the changes that occur in the brains of blind cavefishes after developmental manipulation. Our central hypothesis is that the developing optic tectum circuitry in the cavefish is robust and receptive to coherent visual information, so that homeostatic mechanisms will allow for the emergence of visual codes. Our specific objective is to test the malleability of the optic tectum circuitry in response to visual input during development. To accomplish this, we will train two undergraduate students, one master's student and a PhD student as well as high school volunteers from a charter school in Newark, NJ.