An examination of factors affecting the discrimination of heading direction

影响航向辨别的因素研究

• 批准号: RGPIN-2020-05527
• 负责人: Skinner, Darlene
• 金额: $ 2.04万
• 依托单位: Memorial University of Newfoundland
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2021-01-01 至 2022-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=740636
• 关键词: examination; factors; affecting; discrimination; heading

The first thing a person does when exiting a subway station is to look around and get oriented, because knowing where you are (e.g., at the corner of Main and Pine Streets) does not help you start the next leg of your journey unless you also know your heading. Head direction cells fire when an animal's head is pointed in a particular direction and are thought to underlie this sense of direction or orientation. The importance of orientation has been revealed by its impact on spatial learning, its role in the encoding of memories, and its representation in many neural structures involved in navigation. The fact that head direction cells fire in an adult-like fashion earlier than other types of spatial cells (i.e., place and grid cells) has led to speculation that head direction cells set up the entire spatial network in the mammalian brain. Work in my lab has strengthened the belief that direction learning underlies the solution to many spatial problems previously attributed to place learning. The goal of my research program is to determine what head direction cells contribute to direction learning and spatial navigation. If head direction cells are the neural representation of an animal's sense of direction, then disrupting the flow of information within the head direction cell circuit should disrupt behavioral demonstrations of direction learning. The research outlined in this proposal will examine the effects of permanent lesions and temporary inactivation of select components of the head direction cell circuit in rats on spatial tasks where directional heading is key to problem solution. Additional experiments will examine how factors such as aging and circadian rhythm disruption affect direction learning. A better understanding of the functional significance of head direction cells and their presence in a multitude of brain regions will serve to make models of navigation more complete and advance the field of spatial cognition.

离开地铁站时，一个人做的第一件事就是环顾四周并确定方向，因为知道自己在哪里（例如，在 Main 街和 Pine 街的拐角处）并不能帮助您开始下一段旅程，除非您也知道自己的方向。当动物的头部指向特定方向时，头部方向细胞就会放电，并且被认为是这种方向感或方位感的基础。方向的重要性已经通过它对空间学习的影响、它在记忆编码中的作用以及它在涉及导航的许多神经结构中的表现来揭示。头部方向细胞比其他类型的空间细胞（即位置细胞和网格细胞）更早地以类似成人的方式放电，这一事实导致人们猜测头部方向细胞在哺乳动物大脑中建立了整个空间网络。我实验室的工作强化了这样的信念：方向学习是解决许多以前归因于地点学习的空间问题的基础。我的研究计划的目标是确定哪些头部方向细胞有助于方向学习和空间导航。如果头部方向细胞是动物方向感的神经表征，那么扰乱头部方向细胞回路内的信息流就会扰乱方向学习的行为表现。该提案中概述的研究将检查大鼠头部方向细胞回路的选定组件的永久性损伤和暂时失活对空间任务的影响，其中定向方向是解决问题的关键。其他实验将研究衰老和昼夜节律紊乱等因素如何影响方向学习。更好地理解头部方向细胞的功能意义及其在多个大脑区域中的存在将有助于使导航模型更加完整并推进空间认知领域。