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，这反过来又引起了行为和认知的变化。为人父母的累积经验，包括怀孕和提供亲代照顾，是动物生活史中最重要的社会经验之一。父母经历对父母大脑生理的重要性不如其在后代发育和生存中的作用为人所知。然而，为人父母后大脑的变化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。所有这些行为都与海马体有关，海马体是一个可塑性很强的大脑区域，它会因为人父母的经历和生理状态而改变，比如伴随为人父母的转变而产生的荷尔蒙变化。我过去对大鼠的研究表明，母性经历在短期内和随着年龄的增长重塑了海马。由于需要，对双亲物种的父系经验进行了罕见的研究，但在研究父亲身份时，这些研究通常忽略了母亲身份。尽管如此，父母的经历不仅包括父母和子女之间的互动，还包括照顾伙伴之间的互动。目前，我们对同一物种雌性和雄性的亲代经历对海马重塑的程度及其对行为的影响知之甚少。我提出的研究计划旨在通过统一的方法来解决我们在双代和长寿啮齿动物方面的这一基本知识差距。我将首先研究海马体的重塑和行为与父母的经历和衰老以及潜在的荷尔蒙机制。然后，我将操纵大脑重塑和激素途径，直接将可塑性的变化与行为联系起来。为人父母对许多动物来说都是一种至关重要的经历，然而令人惊讶的是，人们对这种独特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亲子关系会在短期内随着年龄的增长重塑女性和男性的大脑，以及它对行为的影响。该研究项目的学员将成为一个充满活力和包容性的研究环境的一部分，并鼓励他们在会议上发言，并在科学期刊上发表他们的成果。学生离开实验室后，将掌握动物行为、神经科学、生理学、细胞和分子生物学等领域的一系列技能，这些技能在学术界备受追捧，并可转移到加拿大生物医学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.