The influence of serotonergic signaling on visual and somatosensory cortical processing and its relevance for motor behavior

视觉感知及其与躯体感觉处理的耦合对于精确的运动行为是重要的。知觉和运动动作在某些情绪状态下特别受影响，如动机，愤怒，恐惧或注意力。5-羟色胺已被确定为参与情绪行为的主要递质，其特别作用于G蛋白偶联受体（GPCRs）。已知5-羟色胺能投射早在初级感觉和运动皮质区就调节加工过程。此外，感觉区与皮质运动输出活动密切相关，但这些广泛的区域间相互作用目前知之甚少。在这项研究中，我们将调查的影响，神经递质释放和细胞内信号的视觉和躯体感觉皮层处理，并将确定哪些神经递质信号通路参与。然后，我们将研究如何信息处理过程中的多巴胺能输入可以调节预测性能，适应和运动行为的学习。具体来说，我们将测试在多大程度上的神经元能输入调制局部区域内处理与调制interareal相互作用。因此，我们将开发光遗传学工具，用于控制麻醉以及清醒和清醒小鼠中5-羟色胺的释放和下游信号。为了捕获多个大脑区域内和跨多个大脑区域的网络活动模式，我们将利用电压敏感染料（VSD）成像的独特能力，该成像允许以高空间和时间分辨率记录突触群体活动。我们将使用我们的工具来监测皮质活动在视觉任务的背景下，精确控制神经元能信号。我们用自回归模型和信息论方法量化了区域内和区域间的相互作用。将在行为运动学习任务中测试感觉处理的调制的行为后果，其中动物必须将视觉提示与错误步骤信号相关联。我们将测试多巴胺能调制是否会增强运动学习和错误预测，以及这些过程是如何在皮层网络活动模式中编码的。实验将导致创建一个计算模型的调制视觉任务检测的血清素和运动调节的重要性。为了进行这些实验，我们组建了一个由三名专家组成的团队，负责开发光遗传学工具（Herlitze），在系统水平上分析体内视觉处理（Jancke）和神经元信号的复杂计算建模（Koenig）。

Visual perception and its coupling to somatosensory processing are important for precise motor behavior. Perception and motor action is in particular influenced during certain emotional states, such as motivation, anger, fear, or attention. Serotonin has been identified as a main transmitter involved in emotional behavior, which acts in particular on G protein coupled receptors (GPCRs). Serotonergicprojections are known to modulate processing as early as in primary sensory and motor cortical areas. Furthermore, sensory areas closely interact with cortical motor output activities but these widespread interareal interactions are currently poorly understood. In this grant we will investigate the influence of serotonergic transmitter release and intracellular signaling for visual and somatosensory cortical processing and will determine which serotonergic signaling pathway is involved. We will then investigate how information processing during serotonergic input can modulate predictive properties, adaptation, and learning of motor behavior. Specifically we will test in how far serotonergic input modulates local intraareal processing vs. modulation of interareal interactions. We will therefore develop optogenetic tools for the control of serotonin release and the down-stream signals in anaesthetized as well as awake and behavingmice. To capture the network activity patterns within and across multiple brain areas we will exploit the unique capacities of voltage-sensitive dye (VSD) imaging, which allows recording of synaptic population activity at both high spatial and temporal resolutions. We will use our tools to monitor the cortical activity during visual tasks in the context of precise control of serotonergic signals. We quantify intra- and interareal interactions by autoregressive models and information theoretic methods. The behavioral consequences of the modulation of sensory processing will be tested in a behavioral motor learning task, where the animal has to associate a visual cue with an error step signal. We will test if serotonergic modulation will enhance motor learning and error prediction and how such processes are encoded in cortical network activity patterns. The experiments will lead to create a computational model for the modulation of visual task detection by serotonin and its importance for movement adjustment. In order to perform these experiments we have assembled a team of three experts on the development of optogenetic tools (Herlitze), analysis of visual processing in vivo on a systems level (Jancke) and complex computational modeling of neuronal signals (Koenig).