Neural Circuits Underlying the Acquisition and Control of Motor Skills

运动技能习得和控制的神经回路 我们的大部分行为技能都是由习得的运动技能组成的，但对其背后的神经回路却知之甚少 他们的收购和控制。我们研究计划的首要目标是识别这些电路，描绘它们的 各自的功能，并解释它们共同实施运动技能学习和执行的逻辑。 为了实现这一目标，我们开发了尖端的实验基础设施，旨在实现高吞吐量 以及对啮齿动物复杂的学习行为进行严格的研究。为了促进学习所学的运动技能，我们开发了 训练大鼠产生特定于任务的运动模式，并学习复杂的运动运动学的任务。在以前的 我们的工作表明，运动皮质是学习这些技能所必需的，但一旦获得就不是执行这些技能所必需的。这些 令人惊讶的结果表明，虽然运动皮质在学习中有作用，但获得的技能是存储和生成的 大脑皮层下。我们进一步表明，感觉运动输入区的基底节，背外侧纹状体， 对所学运动技能的运动学细节进行编码，这对于生成它们是必不可少的。在这里，我们以这些为基础 结果研究了皮层下回路，特别是纹状体和丘脑， 为获得、存储和生成这些技能做出贡献。为了达到这一目的，我们将利用我们的创新实验 在数周的训练中持续监测神经活动和行为的平台，同时也干扰神经活动 并观察这些操作对行为的影响。我们将描述纹状体编码如何与任务相关 运动模式随着学习而变化，以及这些变化与纹状体假定的控制功能之间的关系(目标1)。 我们将进一步解析从丘脑到纹状体的与运动技能执行相关的通路(目标2)和 描述丘脑中与任务相关的活动模式以及它们如何在纹状体中转化(目标3)。精确 使用基于视频的运动跟踪来测量大鼠的运动将把我们的神经记录和电路联系起来 以精确的方式操纵行为，使我们能够推断皮层下回路如何实现获取和 执行已学到的技能。解决这些目标将澄清哺乳动物运动系统如何使运动 技能学习和执行，并描绘了基底节和丘脑在这些重要过程中的作用，从而 解决神经科学中的基本问题，对临床实践和 神经康复。

Neural circuits underlying the acquisition and control of motor skills Much of our behavioral repertoire consists of learned motor skills, yet little is known about the neural circuits underlying their acquisition and control. The overarching goals of our research program is to identify these circuits, delineate their respective functions, and explain the logic by which they work together to implement motor skill learning and execution. To work towards this goal, we developed cutting-edge experimental infrastructure designed to enable high-throughout and rigorous studies of complex learned behaviors in rodents. To facilitate the study of learned motor skills, we developed a task that train rats to produce task-specific movement patterns with complex learned movement kinematics. In previous work, we showed that motor cortex is necessary for learning these skills, but not for executing them once acquired. These surprising results suggest that, while motor cortex has a function in learning, the acquired skills are stored and generated subcortically. We further showed that the sensorimotor input region of the basal ganglia, the dorsolateral striatum, encodes the kinematic details of the learned motor skills and is essential for generating them. Here, we build on these results to examine the logic and mechanisms by which subcortical circuits, specifically the striatum and thalamus, contribute to acquiring, storing, and generating these skills. To get at this, we will use our innovative experimental platform to monitor neural activity and behavior continuously over weeks of training, while also perturbing neural activity and observe the effects of these manipulations on behavior. We will describe how striatal encoding of task-related movement patterns changes with learning and how these changes relate to a striatum’s putative control function (Aim 1). We will further parse the pathways from thalamus to striatum that are relevant for motor skill execution (Aim 2) and describe task-related activity patterns in the thalamus and how they are transformed in the striatum (Aim 3). Precise measurement of the rats’ movements using video-based motion tracking will relate our neural recordings and circuit manipulations to behavior in exact ways, allowing us to infer how subcortical circuits implement the acquisition and execution of learned skills. Addressing these aims will clarify the logic of how the mammalian motor system enables motor skill learning and execution and delineate the roles of the basal ganglia and thalamus in these important processes, thus addressing fundamental questions in neuroscience with far-reaching implications for clinical practice and neurorehabilitation.