Investigating the interaction of motivational systems

激励系统在自然界中是紧密协调的，然而，为了简单起见，实验室环境倾向于将注意力集中在行为的一个方面。食欲调节是一个极其重要的动力系统，解剖出调节这一复杂过程的神经回路，对于我们与肥胖和进食相关疾病的斗争是必不可少的。在这里，我们建议研究饥饿和饱腹感信号如何与恐惧和焦虑等其他动机过程相关联。笼子里的啮齿动物通常会被随意提供食物，然而，为了测试饥饿回路，可以禁食老鼠，或者人工操纵促进饥饿的神经元。老鼠将经历各种模式来加强饥饿信号，并呈现出视觉、听觉和/或嗅觉线索，这些线索天生就会导致焦虑，例如捕食性尿液或入侵者动物的存在。这样的研究将使我们能够解开整合饥饿与恐惧等动机系统的电路机制。我们将使用一个表达Cre的小鼠的文库(AGRP、POMC、MC4R)以及依赖Cre的AAV载体(ChR2、hM3dq、Synaptophysin)来进行一些行为范式，包括位置偏好和社交测试。

Motivational systems are tightly tuned in nature, however laboratory settings tend to focus attention toward one aspect of behavior for simplicity purposes. Appetite regulation is an extremely vital motivational system and dissecting out the neural circuits regulating this complex process is imperative in our fight against obesity and feeding-associated diseases. Here, we are proposing to study how hunger and satiety signals are associated with other motivational processes such as fear and anxiety. Caged rodents are normally presented with food ad libitum, however to test hunger circuits, mice can be fasted or alternatively hunger-promoting neurons can be artificially manipulated. Mice will undergo various paradigms to strengthen hunger signals and presented with visual, auditory and/or olfactory cues that innately drive anxiety, such as the presence of predatory urine or an intruder animal. Studies such as these will allow us to unravel circuit mechanisms integrating motivational systems such as hunger versus fear. We will use a library of Cre-expressing mice (AGRP, POMC, MC4R) as well as Cre-dependent AAV-vectors (ChR2, hM3dq, synaptophysin) in a number of behavioral paradigms including place preference and sociability tests.