Investigating the Role of the Retrosplenial Cortex in Multi-step Planning

项目总结/摘要 多步骤计划是人类认知的基本基础，也是精神分裂症等疾病的障碍 在日常生活中扰乱目标导向的行为。规划的关键是对备选方案的评估 动作基于环境的内部模型，但这个过程的确切神经实现是 不太了解。有几条证据表明压后皮质（RSC）与记忆有关， 展望，和行动评估，这使得RSC的候选区域，基于模型的评估 很可能是为了支持计划。然而，RSC在多步规划中的作用从未直接 被测试过了该项目将通过整合细胞分辨率钙成像和 化学遗传学干扰监测和沉默大鼠RSC神经元的活动，执行两步任务 那是一个很好的计划。通过使用这种策略，我们将直接评估RSC中神经元的活性（1） 编码未来行动的基于模型的值，以及（2）因果地有助于在 两步任务-两个关键的证据，可以直接确定RSC的作用，在多步规划。识别 支持多步骤计划的神经元反应将促进我们对神经元反应的基本理解。 神经计算过程是认知的基础，并为直接翻译研究提供了信息。 精神病患者的灵活行为。这个项目的目标与大脑的使命产生共鸣 主动整合创新的实验和计算技术，以了解神经 多步骤规划和目标导向行为的机制，具有指导诊断的潜力， 相关精神疾病的治疗干预。

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT Multi-step planning is a fundamental basis of human cognition and its impairment in disorders like schizophrenia disrupts goal-directed behavior in everyday situations. Essential to planning is the evaluation of alternative actions based on an internal model of the environment, but the exact neural implementation of this process is poorly understood. Several lines of evidence have implicated the retrosplenial cortex (RSC) in memory, prospection, and action evaluation, which makes the RSC the candidate region where model-based evaluation is most likely performed to support planning. However, the role of RSC in multi-step planning has never directly been tested. This project will address this gap by integrating cellular-resolution calcium imaging and chemogenetic perturbation to monitor and silence the activity of RSC neurons in rats performing a two-step task that elicits planning. By using this strategy, we will directly assess whether the activity of neurons in the RSC (1) encodes the model-based value of future actions and (2) causally contributes to planning behavior during the two-step task - two key evidence that can directly determine RSC’s role in multi-step planning. The identification of neuronal responses supporting multi-step planning will advance our basic understanding of the neurocomputational processes underlying cognition and inform direct translational research on the disruption of flexible behavior among psychiatric patients. The aims of this project resonate with the mission of the BRAIN Initiative in integrating innovative experimental and computational technologies to understand the neural mechanisms of multi-step planning and goal-directed behavior, with potentials for guiding the diagnosis and therapeutic intervention of related psychiatric disorders.