Plasticity and variation in brain organization and behaviour

大脑组织和行为的可塑性和变异

• 批准号: RGPIN-2017-06434
• 负责人: Cooke, Dylan
• 金额: $ 1.89万
• 依托单位: Simon Fraser University
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2019
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2019-01-01 至 2020-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=681624
• 关键词: Plasticity; variation; brain; organization; behaviour

Mammalian brains change throughout the course of a lifetime, but the impact of early life experience has the most profound effect on how the brain is constructed. Specifically, changes in connectivity and organization of the neocortex and the behavior it directs give mammals (humans included) enormous flexibility to adapt to novel environments. Such experience-based plasticity has been demonstrated by enhancing or depriving sensorimotor experience, which generally enlarges and shrinks corresponding body part representations, respectively. For example, trimming the whiskers of rats and mice causes the cortical whisker representation to shrink and that of the forelimb to grow. Training rodents to reach with their forelimbs enlarges the paw representation. The additional neural processing possible in larger representations is thought to underlie enhanced abilities of the corresponding body parts. ***Most studies of brain plasticity manipulate one variable at a time (e.g. whisker trimming or reach training). But outside of the laboratory, multiple factors together alter the brain and behavior. The complex interaction of factors shaping brains in the real world points to the need for several complementary lines of inquiry. My research program aims to understand how experience shapes the brain. In this proposal, our objectives are to:******(1) Determine the extent to which a given genotype can produce variable cortical phenotypes, i.e., how much can the brain change in one lifetime?***(2) Determine how multiple complementary changes in experience common in nature, but so far absent in the laboratory interact to shape brain organization.***(3) Measure the magnitude of individual variation in sensorimotor skills and relate this to variation in brain organization.******The techniques proposed here are well established, but will be implemented in new ways and combinations. This will be the first examination of neural plasticity combining complementary enhancement of one body part (forelimb) and deprivation of another (whiskers). Forelimb reach training will be far more pervasive and will begin far earlier than any previous study. Together these innovations address fundamental questions about the limits of brain plasticity, the impact of complex environments on brain organization, and the relationship between brain organization and skill. Our inquiries will contribute to neuroscientists' understanding of how brains develop and change. As well as being a fundamental question about the nature of humans and other mammals, how animals adapt to complex, changing environments has implications for their responses to climate change and other human impacts on the environment. For humans, the basic question of how changeable and variable the brain is has implications for education, health and societal attitudes about which parts of behavior are fixed and which are mutable.

哺乳动物的大脑在一生中都会发生变化，但早期生活经历的影响对大脑的构造产生了最深远的影响。具体来说，新皮层的连接和组织及其指导的行为的变化赋予哺乳动物（包括人类）巨大的灵活性，以适应新的环境。这种基于经验的可塑性已经通过增强或剥夺感觉运动经验来证明，这通常分别扩大和缩小相应的身体部位表征。例如，修剪大鼠和小鼠的胡须会导致皮质胡须表征萎缩，前肢的胡须表征增长。训练啮齿类动物用前肢触地可以扩大爪子的代表性。在更大的表征中可能出现的额外神经处理被认为是相应身体部位能力增强的基础。* 大多数关于大脑可塑性的研究都是一次处理一个变量（例如胡须修剪或伸展训练）。但在实验室之外，多种因素共同改变了大脑和行为。在真实的世界中，塑造大脑的因素之间复杂的相互作用，表明需要几条互补的研究路线。我的研究项目旨在了解经验如何塑造大脑。在这个提议中，我们的目标是：**（1）确定给定基因型可以产生可变皮质表型的程度，即，一个人的一生中大脑能改变多少？(2)确定在自然界中常见的经验中的多种互补变化如何相互作用，但到目前为止在实验室中还没有相互作用，以塑造大脑组织。(3)测量感觉运动技能的个体差异大小，并将其与大脑组织的差异联系起来。这里提出的技术是成熟的，但将以新的方式和组合来实现。这将是第一次检查神经可塑性结合互补增强一个身体部位（前肢）和剥夺另一个（胡须）。前肢前伸训练将更加普及，并且将比以前的任何研究都更早开始。这些创新共同解决了有关大脑可塑性的限制，复杂环境对大脑组织的影响以及大脑组织与技能之间的关系等基本问题。我们的研究将有助于神经科学家了解大脑是如何发育和变化的。除了是关于人类和其他哺乳动物的本质的一个基本问题之外，动物如何适应复杂，不断变化的环境对它们应对气候变化和人类对环境的其他影响也有影响。对于人类来说，大脑的可变性和可变性的基本问题对教育、健康和社会态度都有影响，这些社会态度涉及哪些行为是固定的，哪些是可变的。