NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology FY 2021: The social brain: behavioral, neural, and transcriptomic modulation of the brain

这一行动为NSF 2021财年生物学博士后研究奖学金提供了资金，综合研究调查了支配基因组、环境和表型之间相互作用的生命规则。该奖学金支持研究员的研究和培训，这些研究员将以创新的方式为生活规则领域做出贡献。动物通过认知机制与它们的世界互动，认知机制的底物在中枢神经系统的神经组织中找到。认知的一个基本机制是联想学习，即个体将刺激与特定经验联系起来。动物对其世界中的事件有许多联想，包括消极事件，如躲避捕食者或极端条件，以及积极事件，如食物或配偶的位置。根据个人对压力的反应，积极和消极的学习环境可能会以不同的方式影响个人。这项研究以斑马鱼为模型，旨在了解不同应激反应的鱼对不同学习环境的反应，以及这如何对它们的大脑产生不同的影响。该项目将与这项工作相关地为不同的受众创造公共外展机会。这项研究将利用尖端行为分析和神经分子技术来探索不同学习环境的行为、神经和转录结果。利用从高(反应性)和低(主动性)应激反应中挑选出来的斑马鱼，研究人员将使用食欲或厌恶刺激，在条件位置偏好范例中训练斑马鱼。实验结束后，将使用即刻早期基因EGR-1和可塑性相关基因npas4a在涉及学习和记忆的大脑区域网络中表达来评估神经激活。然后，这位研究员将评估海马体和杏仁基底外侧核的神经转录组。这位研究员将比较学习环境(食欲或厌恶)和压力应对方式(反应性或主动性)之间的学习和记忆、神经激活和基因表达，以确定个体鱼类的内在和外在因素如何相互作用，在行为、神经和转录水平上影响认知。该奖学金将为研究员提供发展研究、教学和公共参与技能的机会，为他们在研究密集型机构开始独立职业生涯做好准备。该研究员将通过公共宣传与STEM接触不同的社区，并为来自当地社区大学的学生培养宝贵的研究机会。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This action funds an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology for FY 2021, Integrative Research Investigating the Rules of Life Governing Interactions Between Genomes, Environment and Phenotypes. The fellowship supports research and training of the Fellow that will contribute to the area of Rules of Life in innovative ways. Animals interact with their world through cognitive mechanisms, the substrates of which are found in the neural tissues of the central nervous system. A fundamental mechanism of cognition is associative learning where an individual associates a stimulus with a specific experience. Animals form many associations about events in their world, including negative events such as the avoidance of predators or extreme conditions and positive events such as the location of food or mates. Depending on how an individual reacts to stress, positive and negative learning contexts likely affect individuals in different ways. Using zebrafish as a model, this research aims to understand how fish with differing stress reactivity react to different learning contexts, and how this differentially affects their brain. The project will create public outreach opportunities to diverse audiences in association with this work.This research will utilize cutting edge behavioral analysis and neuromolecular techniques to probe the behavioral, neural, and transcriptomic outcomes of different learning contexts. Using zebrafish from lines selected for high (reactive) and low (proactive) stress reactivity, the Fellow will train fish in a conditioned place preference paradigm using appetitive or aversive stimuli. Following the experiment, neural activation will be evaluated using the immediate early gene egr-1 and expression of the plasticity-related gene npas4a across a network of brain regions involved in learning and memory. The Fellow will then evaluate the neural transcriptome in the hippocampus and basolateral amygdala. The Fellow will compare learning and memory, neural activation, and gene expression between learning contexts (appetitive or aversive) and stress coping styles (reactive or proactive) to determine how intrinsic and extrinsic factors interact in individual fish to affect cognition at the behavioral, neural, and transcriptomic level. This fellowship will provide opportunities for the Fellow to develop research, teaching, and public engagement skills that will prepare them to begin an independent career at a research-intensive institution. The Fellow will engage diverse communities with STEM through public outreach and cultivate valuable research opportunities for students from local community colleges.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.