Activity dynamics in central amygdala during habit formation

习惯形成过程中杏仁核中央的活动动态

• 批准号: 9914584
• 负责人: Kenneth Amaya
• 金额: $ 4.6万
• 依托单位: DARTMOUTH COLLEGE
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2019
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2019-09-01 至 2021-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9914584
• 关键词: Address; Amygdaloid structure; Animal Experimentation; Animals; Area; Basic Science; Behavior; Behavioral; Binge Eating; Biological; Brain; Cell Nucleus; Characteristics; Chronic; Code; Communication; Complex; Compulsive Behavior; Consultations; Corpus striatum structure; Data; Decision Making; Desire for food; Development; Disease; Electrophysiology (science); Exhibits; Fellowship; Food; Future; Gilles de la Tourette syndrome; Goals; Habits; Human; Individual; Investigation; Knowledge; Learning; Location; Mammals; Mental Health; Methodology; Methods; Mission; Motivation; Neurons; Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder; Outcome; Pattern; Performance; Personal Satisfaction; Phase; Phenotype; Physiological; Postdoctoral Fellow; Prefrontal Cortex; Problem Solving; Process; Rattus; Research; Research Personnel; Rewards; Rodent; Route; Running; Series; Signal Transduction; Stimulus; Structure; Substantia nigra structure; Techniques; Testing; Training; Translating; United States National Institutes of Health; Work; base; behavioral response; career; cell type; design; exercise regimen; expectation; experience; experimental study; flexibility; in vivo; in vivo calcium imaging; insight; interest; neural correlate; neuromechanism; neuronal patterning; novel; pars compacta; psychologic; relating to nervous system; response

Project Summary Decision-making is critical for survival but is a complex process to understand at the level of brain function. Animals and humans alike can use two strategies to solve problems of decision-making: goal-directed or habitual behavior. Habits emerge late in training as animals transition from reliance on a goal-directed strategy to a habit with experience. Biologically, habits are known to develop via communication between a network of areas that span across the brain. Of particular interest for habit formation are the prefrontal cortex (IL), the sensorimotor striatum (DLS), dopaminergic projections to the striatum (SNc), and the central nucleus of the amygdala (CeA). Previous work has shown that a characteristic neuronal signature develops in IL and DLS, where as a habit develops, single-unit neuronal activity accentuates the beginning and end of actions of the behavior as it becomes well-learned. Importantly, as habits are comprised of multiple components (e.g. efficiency of action sequences and insensitivity to goal value), these individual features correlate with neural activity in distinct brain areas across the habit network (IL: outcome devaluation insensitivity, DLS: action vigor). However, there is a gap in knowledge in how activity in the central nucleus of the amygdala (CeA) codes habits or how that activity relates to the function of these other interconnected areas The objective of this project is to define how neural activity in CeA contributes to habit formation and whether a distinct component of behavior correlates with neural activity. The rationale is that the habit network is conserved across mammals as habits are ubiquitous and the potential for basic research to translate into bettering the human condition is high. The central hypothesis is that CeA neurons will develop a “chunking” pattern of activity that is necessary for a habit to develop, with behavioral correlates of this neural activity similar to those that correlate with IL. Guided by methods and data from Specific Aim 1, where behavioral phenotypes of habit and methodology to test habit formation are addressed, Specific Aim 2 will, through in-vivo electrophysiology, determine if CeA activity brackets in a manner similar to IL, DLS, and SNc as a habit forms on an elevated plus-maze task. Specific Aim 3 details a plan to identify and pursue a postdoctoral research fellowship upon completion of the dissertation work described in Specific Aim 2. Overall, the proposed experiment has the potential to provide mental health clinicians and researchers significant insight into how compulsive actions may arise from improperly timed amygdalar activity and will further define how neural activity can contribute to psychological phenomena such as habit formation.

项目摘要 决策对于生存至关重要，但在大脑功能水平上是一个复杂的过程。 动物和人类都可以使用两种策略来解决决策问题：目标定向或习惯 行为。习惯在训练后期出现，因为动物从退休到目标策略过渡到习惯 有经验。从生物学上讲，已知习惯是通过在一个领域网络之间进行交流而发展的 跨越大脑。习惯形成特别感兴趣的是前额叶皮层（IL），即感觉运动 纹状体（DLS），纹状体（SNC）的多巴胺能项目和杏仁核的中央核（CEA）。 先前的工作表明，IL和DLS中的特征性神经元素签名发展是一种习惯 发展，单单元神经元活动突显了行为行动的开始和结束 变得很好。重要的是，由于习惯由多个组成部分组成（例如，作用效率 序列和对目标价值的不敏感性），这些个体特征与不同大脑的神经活动相关 习惯网络的领域（IL：结果定义不敏感，DLS：动作活力）。但是，有一个 在知识中，差距在杏仁核（CEA）代码习惯的中央核中的活性如何或该活动如何 与这些其他互连区域的功能有关 该项目的目的是定义CEA中的神经活动如何促进习惯形成和 行为的独特组成部分是否与神经活动相关。理由是习惯网络 由于习惯无处不在，因此在跨哺乳动物之间保守，基础研究的潜力可以转化为 改善人类状况很高。中心假设是CEA神经元将发展一个“块” 这种神经活动的行为相关性相似 与与IL相关的人。在特定目标1的方法和数据的指导下，行为表型 解决了习惯形成的习惯和方法论，特定的目标2将通过体内 电生理学，确定CEA活性括号是否以类似于IL，DLS和SNC为习惯形式的方式 在高架迷宫任务中。特定目标3详细介绍了识别和追求博士后研究的计划 特定目标2中描述的论文工作完成后的奖学金。总体而言，拟议 实验有可能为心理健康临床医生和研究人员提供有关如何 强迫行动可能是由于定时杏仁核活动不当而产生的，并将进一步定义神经活动 可以有助于心理现象，例如习惯形成。