Neural ensembles underlying natural tracking behavior

 描述（由申请人提供）：控制平滑追踪眼球运动的系统是用于理解神经回路如何将感觉输入转换为动作的最容易接近的、有前途的系统之一。追逐是一种自然的、与生态相关的行为，它使灵长类动物能够在视觉世界中追踪感兴趣的移动物体。现在，将神经活动与行为联系起来的经典分析已经提供了关于追踪回路的系统级功能和计算的见解，这些功能和计算可能超过了我们对哺乳动物所有其他自愿行为的理解。尽管取得了这些成功，但我们对追捕系统的理解仍存在很大差距。我们通过测量和操纵关键感觉和前额叶皮层区域中大量已识别神经元的活动，来寻求对电路的新理解。我们打算解决不同的神经元类型的功能，在追求，他们如何实现系统级的计算内的微和中观电路，以及控制中心如何选择适当的感官数据给定的认知因素。这些问题虽然是在追踪系统的背景下提出的，但它们是更普遍的问题的实例，即大量感觉神经元的群体活动如何被解析并转化为适当的行为。现在时机已经成熟，以利用几个技术和概念革命：具体来说，我们建议研究的神经基础的追求眼球运动的绒猴，其中负责运动感觉和目标选择的皮质区很容易访问，基因组工具箱正在生成。我们将使用双光子钙成像和大规模细胞外阵列电生理学，细胞类型识别和光遗传学扰动以及动力学系统建模的组合来研究多尺度的功能电路。

 DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The system that controls smooth pursuit eye movements is one of the most accessible, promising systems for understanding how neural circuits transform sensory inputs into actions. Pursuit is a natural, ecologically- relevant behavir that allows primates to track moving objects of interest in the visual world. Now-classical analyses relating neural activity to behavior have already provided insights about the systems-level functions and computations of the pursuit circuit that perhaps exceed our understanding of all other voluntary behaviors in mammals. Despite these successes, there are large gaps in our understanding of the pursuit system. We seek a new level in understanding the circuit by measuring and manipulating the activity of large populations of identified neurons in the key sensory and prefrontal cortical areas. We intend to address how different neuronal types function during pursuit, how they implement systems-level computations within micro- and meso-circuits, and how control centers select the appropriate sensory data given cognitive factors. These questions, although stated in the context of the pursuit system, are instances of the more general problem of how population activity in large numbers of sensory neurons is parsed and converted into appropriate behaviors. The time is now ripe to take advantage of several technical and conceptual revolutions: Specifically, we propose to study the neural basis of pursuit eye movements in marmosets, in which cortical areas responsible for motion sensation and target selection are easily accessed and for which genomic toolboxes are being generated. We will investigate the functional circuitry at multiple scales using a combination of 2-photon calcium imaging and large-scale extracellular array electrophysiology, cell-type identification and optogenetic perturbation, and dynamical systems modeling.