CAREER: The Role of Amygdalocortical Systems in Affect and Attention

千叶摘要：生物体根据学习到的环境刺激的关联灵活地调整其行为的能力对该生物体的生存至关重要。在其他问题中，成功的适应既取决于适当的注意力调节，也取决于对环境刺激的情感意义的准确评估。杏仁核的两个不同的解剖分区，中央核和基底外侧复合体，被认为在许多依赖于联想学习的实验条件下，在适应行为中发挥作用。许多皮质下和皮质解剖投影允许杏仁核获得基本的感觉和躯体信息，并使其定位以影响行为的输出。拟议的工作旨在研究杏仁核中央核和基底外侧复合体及其组成的皮质/皮质系统在调节学习过程中的注意力和情感评估方面的作用。将使用行为任务、神经记录(单个单元)神经化学操作和损伤技术的组合来收集研究这些问题的数据。一旦收集到数据，将与计算模型人员合作，研究神经放电特性的替代分析技术。此外，该研究计划将作为一种工具，为多个学术水平的学生提供研究机会(从高中到博士后)。这一方法的一个关键组成部分将包括培训研究人员从事科学工作，同时向他们提供教授他人的技能和机会。最终，这将导致旨在提供独特的科学机会和信息的社区外联工作，这些机会和信息可能有助于吸引更多不同的青年群体从事科学工作。

Chiba abstractAn organism's ability to flexibly adapt its behavior based on the learned associations of environmental stimuli can be critical to the survival of that organism. Among other issues, successful adaptation relies on both appropriate modulation of attention and an accurate appraisal or evaluation of the affective significance of environmental stimuli. Two distinct anatomical divisions of the amygdala, the central nucleus and the basolateral complex, are thought to play a role in adaptive behavior under many experimental conditions that depend on associative learning. Numerous subcortical and cortical anatomical projections allow the amygdala access to basic sensory and somatic information, and also position it to affect the output of behavior. The proposed body of work is aimed towards the investigation of the role of the central nucleus and the basolateral complex of the amygdala and their constituent corticopetal/cortical systems in modulating attention and affective evaluation during learning. A combination of behavioral tasks, neural recording (single units) neurochemical manipulations, and lesion techniques will be used to gather data investigating these issues. Once the data are gathered, techniques for alternative analysis of the neural firing properties will be pursued in a collaborative effort with computational modelers.Additionally, this research program will be used as a vehicle to provide research opportunities for students at multiple academic levels (high school through post-doctoral). A critical component of this approach will include training researchers to do science while providing them with the skills and opportunities to teach others. Ultimately, this will result in a community outreach effort aimed towards providing unique scientific opportunities and information that may serve to draw a more diverse group of young people to the sciences.