Corticostriatal contributions to motor exploration and reinforcement

项目摘要 复杂的运动序列是许多高技能行为的基础，从田径到音乐 和声音的表达。学习这种复杂的动作需要两种运动变异性，以便于探索 对强化学习和运动灵活性很重要，以实现对行为的适应性修改 对增援信号的反应。研究相对简单的技能学习，如杠杆按压或舔舔， 强调运动皮质和纹状体之间的相互作用是探索和 增援。然而，皮质纹状体环路如何促进运动探索和复合体的强化 言语等行为仍不为人所知。这项提案的目标是监控和操纵 皮质纹状体回路的活动致力于学习复杂的发声行为。把这些整合起来 使用预测计算模型和新的声音分析方法的电路研究将使我们能够 为了验证皮质纹状体回路提供定向可变性来源的假设，该来源使 系统探索高维声乐的“空间”。具体目标是：1)使用高 确定皮层和纹状体发声相关活动的变异性的分辨率成像方法 神经元与发声的可变性有关；2)使用针对小神经元的细胞类型特异性光遗传扰动 以确定皮质和纹状体神经元活动如何影响发声的可变性；以及3)使用 确定强化信号如何调节皮质纹状体整体活动以及如何调节的闭环方法 这些活动的变化会影响声乐表演。总的来说，拟议的实验将有助于实现我们的 因果检验皮质纹状体回路如何促进运动探索和强化的长期目标 需要学习复杂的技能。

Project Summary Complex motor sequences are fundamental to many highly skilled behaviors, ranging from athletics to musical and vocal expression. Learning such complex movements requires both motor variability, to facilitate exploration important to reinforcement learning, and motor flexibility, to enable the adaptive modification of behavior in response to reinforcement signals. Studies of relatively simple skill learning, such as lever pressing or licking, emphasize that interactions between the motor cortex and the striatum are central to both exploration and reinforcement. However, how corticostriatal circuits facilitate motor exploration and reinforcement of complex behaviors such as speech remains unknown. The goal of this proposal is to monitor and manipulate the activity of corticostriatal circuits dedicated to learning complex vocal behaviors. Integrating these circuit studies with predictive computational models and novel methods of vocal analysis will allow us to test the hypothesis that corticostriatal circuits provide a source of directed variability that enables the systematic exploration of high-dimensional vocal “space.” The Specific Aims are to: 1) Use high- resolution imaging methods to determine how variability in the vocalization-related activity of cortical and striatal neurons relates to vocal variability; 2) Use cell-type specific optogenetic perturbations targeted to small neural ensembles to determine how cortical and striatal neuron activity contributes to vocal variability; and 3) Use closed-loop methods to determine how reinforcement signals modulate corticostriatal ensemble activity and how these changes in activity affect vocal performance. Collectively, the proposed experiments will help achieve our long term goal of causally testing how corticostriatal circuits contribute to motor exploration and reinforcement needed to learn complex skills.