NEURAL MECHANISMS OF DIRECTIONAL ORIENTATION

描述(改编自申请人的摘要)：第二个五年 在K02的支持下，PI希望继续他的职业生涯，重点是研究。 他感兴趣的领域集中在潜在的神经生物学机制 空间认知和相关的学习形式。除了从 正常的教学，奖励也将为PI提供学习的机会 与拟议的研究和他未来的计划相关的几项新技术。 有人提出了一些实验，试图解释空间 信息是在哺乳动物的大脑中处理的，重点是 之前由PI标识和描述的头部方向(HD)单元。它是 PI的目标是确定感觉信息如何转换为 水平认知信号“代表空间。在目标1和目标2中，PI将 检查HD单元信号是如何产生的。在目标3和目标4中， 将检查高清发射的前庭输入。目标5将探讨 确定HD细胞的GABA能中间神经元=放电模式。目标6 检查HD单元用于在以下情况下保持稳定调谐曲线的提示类型 动物进入了一个新的环境，而目标7专注于 HD细胞和空间定向行为。最后，Aim 8研究了HD细胞是如何 响应除地球水平之外的其他平面。这些实验的结果 将对理解大脑如何处理空间信息产生影响 信息，而且由于空间处理缺陷是 与年龄相关的认知障碍，以了解这些障碍的性质 人类的损伤。

DESCRIPTION (adapted from applicant's abstract): With a second five years of K02 support, the PI wishes to continue his career with an emphasis on research. His areas of interest focus on the neurobiological mechanisms underlying spatial cognition and related forms of learning. In addition to relief from normal teaching, the award will also provide the PI the opportunity to learn several new techniques related to the proposed studies and his future plans. Experiments are proposed which will attempt to elucidate how spatial information is processed in the mammalian brain, with emphasis on the role of head direction (HD) cells previously identified and described by the PI. It is the PI's goal to determine how sensory information is transformed into a Ahigh level cognitive signal@ representing space. In Aims 1 and 2, the PI will examine how the HD cell signal is generated. In Aims 3 and 4, the role of vestibular inputs on HD firing will be examined. Aim 5 will explore the role of GABAergic interneurons in defining the HD cells= firing patterns. Aim 6 examines the types of cues HD cells used to maintain a stable tuning curve when the animal enters a novel environment, while Aim 7 focuses on the link between the HD cell and space-directed behaviors. Lastly, Aim 8 examines how HD cells respond to planes other than Earth horizontal. The results of these experiments will have implications for understanding how the brain processes spatial information, and since spatial processing deficits are characteristic of age-related cognitive impairments, to understand the nature of these impairments in humans.