Analysis of the effects of aversive experience on non-defensive behaviors and und

描述（由申请人提供）：在动物和人类中，厌恶事件的经历会在大脑中产生深刻和弥漫性的变化。例如，在健康的大脑中，暴露于令人厌恶的事件需要平衡防御和非防御行为的表达。这种平衡的形成、维持和灵活性方面的缺陷会导致心理健康问题，如焦虑症和创伤后应激障碍。因此，描述经验调节多种行为表达的机制是理解影响数百万美国人的医疗条件的关键一步。 在海洋软体动物Aaplasia californica中，暴露于厌恶性刺激诱导防御和非防御行为的并发调制。具体来说，厌恶性刺激会引起两种相反的行为变化：一种习得性的防御反应增强（即，致敏）和抑制进食行为。摄食的敏感化和抑制有相似的时间过程，取决于厌恶性刺激的量。虽然细胞和分子机制的敏感性，在Aesthesia已被广泛的特点，那些潜在的抑制进食仍然在很大程度上未知。PI的实验室最近开始分析由厌恶刺激引起的摄食抑制的细胞和生化基础。在细胞水平上，摄食的抑制伴随着对摄食表达至关重要的决策神经元（B51）的兴奋性降低。最近的证据表明，摄食抑制和B51兴奋性降低至少部分是由环GMP信号级联介导的。此外，血清素，介导的致敏性，在厌食症，不改变喂养或B51兴奋性，这表明在防御和喂养的神经回路的厌恶刺激产生的变化可能是由不同的和/或多种神经调质（S）。 本研究将采用体内和体外相结合的方法：1）通过检测cGMP信号级联的作用，表征负责摄食抑制和B51降低兴奋性的细胞内信号; 2）通过研究一氧化氮依赖性途径的贡献，鉴定哪种神经调节剂介导摄食抑制和B51兴奋性降低，以及3）探索敏化和摄食抑制之间的关系，试图通过操纵动物的动机状态和延长对厌恶刺激的暴露来“分离”这两种行为变化。 在这个项目中概述的实验提出了一个详细的分析机制负责调制的多个行为相关的神经回路的经验。这一系列的研究将有助于了解非防御性神经回路如何改变它们的活动，以及它们与防御性回路的关系，以应对包括人类在内的更复杂动物的厌恶性刺激。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The experience of an aversive event produces in animals and in humans profound and diffuse changes within the brain. For example, in the healthy brain, exposure to an aversive event requires balancing the expression of defensive and non-defensive behaviors. Deficits in the formation, maintenance and flexibility of this balance can lead to mental-health problems, such as anxiety disorders and post-traumatic stress disorder. Therefore, characterizing the mechanisms by which experience regulates the expression of multiple behaviors represents a critical step to understand medical conditions affecting millions of Americans. In the marine mollusk Aplysia californica, exposure to aversive stimuli induces the concurrent modulation of defensive and non-defensive behaviors. Specifically, aversive stimuli induce two opposite behavioral changes: a learned enhancement of defensive responses (i.e., sensitization) and a suppression of feeding behavior. Sensitization and suppression of feeding share analogous time courses that depend on the amount of aversive stimulation. Whereas the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying sensitization in Aplysia have been extensively characterized, those underlying the suppression of feeding remain largely unknown. The PI's lab has recently begun to analyze the cellular and biochemical underpinning of the suppression of feeding induced by aversive stimuli. At the cellular level, the suppression of feeding is accompanied by a decreased excitability of a decision-making neuron (B51) critical for the expression of feeding. Recent evidence indicates that suppression of feeding and decreased B51 excitability are, at least in part, mediated by the cyclic GMP signaling cascade. In addition, serotonin, which mediates sensitization in Aplysia, does not alter either feeding or B51 excitability, suggesting that changes in the defensive and feeding neural circuits produced by aversive stimuli may be mediated by distinct and/or multiple neuromodulator(s). Using a combination of in vivo and in vitro procedures, this project will: 1) characterize the intracellular signals responsible for feeding suppression of and B51 decreased excitability by examining the role of the cGMP signaling cascade; 2) identify which neuromodulator mediates the suppression of feeding and decreased B51 excitability by investigating the contribution of a nitric oxide dependent pathway and 3) explore the relationship between sensitization and feeding suppression, by attempting to "uncouple" these two behavioral changes by manipulating the animal's motivational state and extending the exposure to aversive stimuli. The experiments outlined in this project propose a detailed analysis of the mechanisms responsible for the modulation of multiple behaviorally-relevant neural circuits by experience. This line of research in Aplysia will contribute to the understanding of how non-defensive neural circuits change their activity and their relations with defensive circuits in response to aversive stimuli in more complex animals, including humans.