Modulation of neuroplasticity and behaviour through parental experience

经验塑造了被称为可塑性的神经回路的发展和持续重塑，这反过来又导致了行为和认知的变化。为人父母的累积经历，包括怀孕和提供父母照顾，是动物生活史上最重要的社会经历之一。父母经历对父母大脑生理学的重要性比它在后代发育和生存中的作用更少为人所知。然而，为人父母的大脑的变化可能会影响动物余生的一系列行为，包括学习和记忆以及对压力和焦虑的调节。所有这些行为都涉及海马体，这是一个高度可塑性的大脑区域，通过父母的经历和生理状态改变，比如伴随着为人父母的荷尔蒙变化。我过去在老鼠身上的研究表明，母亲的经历会在短期内和随着年龄的增长重塑海马体。不可避免的是，关于父亲经历的较罕见的研究是在双亲物种上进行的，但在研究父亲身份时，这些研究通常忽略了母亲的身份。尽管如此，父母的体验不仅包括父母与子女之间的互动，也包括照顾伴侣之间的互动。我们目前对同一物种的雌性和雄性的海马体重塑的程度以及它对行为的影响的了解很弱。我提出的研究计划试图通过对双亲长寿啮齿动物Degus采取统一的方法来解决我们知识中的这一根本差距。我将首先研究海马体的重塑和行为与父母的经验和衰老以及潜在的荷尔蒙机制。然后，我将操纵大脑重塑和荷尔蒙途径，将可塑性的变化与行为直接联系起来。对于许多动物来说，为人父母是一种至关重要的经历，但令人惊讶的是，人们对这种独特的经历对大脑和衰老的影响知之甚少。从这项研究中获得的知识将帮助我们理解为什么为人父母会在短期内改变女性和男性的大脑，并随着年龄的增长而改变，以及它对行为的影响。这项研究计划的受训人员将成为动态和包容的研究环境的一部分，并鼓励他们在会议上发表报告，并在科学期刊上发表他们的成果。学生们将带着动物行为、神经科学、生理学以及细胞和分子生物学方面的一系列技能离开实验室，这些技能在学术界非常受欢迎，可以转移到加拿大的生物医药和健康行业以及政府实验室。

Experience shapes the development and continued remodelling of neural circuits known as plasticity, which in turn gives rise to behavioural and cognitive variation. The cumulative experiences of parenthood, including pregnancy and the provision of parental care, are among the most important social experiences in an animal's life history. The importance of parental experience on parental brain physiology is less well-known than its role in offspring development and survival. However, changes in the brain with parenthood can impact a range of behaviours for the rest of the animal's life, including learning and memory and the regulation of stress and anxiety. All these behaviours involve the hippocampus, a highly plastic brain region that is altered through parental experience and by physiological status, such as hormonal changes that accompany the transition to parenthood. My past research in rats, a monoparental mammal in which the mother solely cares for the offspring, demonstrated that maternal experience remodels the hippocampus in the short-term and with aging. By necessity, the rarer studies on paternal experience have been performed on biparental species, but while studying fatherhood these studies typically neglect motherhood. Nonetheless, parental experience includes not only the interactions between each parent and their offspring, but between the care partners as well. We currently have a weak understanding of the extent of hippocampal remodelling with parental experience in females and males of the same species and its impact on behaviour. My proposed research program seeks to address this fundamental gap in our knowledge through a unified approach in degus, a biparental and long-lived rodent. I will first examine hippocampal remodelling and behaviour with parental experience and aging and the underlying hormonal mechanisms. I will then manipulate brain remodelling and hormonal pathways to directly link changes in plasticity with behaviour. Parenthood is a crucial experience in many animals, yet surprisingly little is known about the impact of this unique experience on the brain and with aging. The knowledge gained from this research will help us understand why parenthood remodels the brain in females and males in the short-term and with aging and its implications for behaviour. Trainees in this research program will be part of a dynamic and inclusive research environment and be encouraged to present at conferences and publish their results in scientific journals. Students will leave the lab with a range of skills in animal behaviour, neuroscience, physiology, and cellular and molecular biology, which are highly sought after in academia and transferable to the Canadian biomedical and health industries and to government laboratories.