Computational connectomics of the cockroach circadian clock

马德拉蟑螂是时间生物学中公认的模型。蟑螂脑中的生物钟由240个神经肽能神经元支配。我们描述了控制休息/活动(睡眠/清醒)节律的神经肽能昼夜节律神经元的连接图，并研究了它在改变光周期时的可塑性。除了直接的突触相互作用外，时钟神经元还通过神经肽信号进行连接。无脊椎动物和哺乳动物的大脑中都含有丰富的神经肽。他们被建议通过大多数未知的机制重新配置广泛分布的大脑回路，以适应遗传编码的生理行为背景。在蟑螂的时钟中，有节奏的神经肽释放产生了在伽马频率范围内同步尖峰的时钟神经元的分布式集合，这让人想起哺乳动物大脑中的伽马频段同步。我们提出了一个通过标记线编码的神经肽功能的新假说，我们想要用神经解剖学和电生理学研究结合定量模型和创新的数据分析来挑战这一假说。我们组成了一个来自生物学、神经计算、物理学、数学和电气工程的专家小组，以解开蟑螂钟的连接。由于蟑螂的结构和功能与哺乳动物的生物钟有着惊人的相似之处，对这一古老昆虫目中简单得多的神经元网络的研究将有望提供有趣的见解。

The Madeira cockroach is an established model in chronobiology. The cockroach circadian clock in the brain is innervated by ~240 neuropeptidergic neurons. We characterize the connectivity map of neuropeptidergic circadian clock neurons that control rest/activity (sleep/wake) rhythms and study its plasticity in changing photoperiods. Next to direct synaptic interactions clock neurons connect via neuropeptide signaling. Neuropeptides are abundant in brains of invertebrates and mammals alike. They are suggested to reconfigure widely distributed brain circuits to accommodate genetically encoded physiological-behavioral contexts via mostly unknown mechanisms. In the cockroach clock rhythmic neuropeptid release generates distributed ensembles of synchronously spiking clock neurons in the gamma frequency range, reminiscent of gamma band synchronization in the mammalian brain. We suggest a new hypothesis of neuropeptide function via labeled line-encoding that we want to challenge with neuroanatomical and electrophysiological studies combined with quantitative modelling and innovative data analysis. We form a group of experts from Biology, Neuro-Computation, Physics, Mathematics, and Electrical Engineering to unravel the connectomics of the cockroach clock. Since structure and functions of the cockroach- and the mammalian circadian clocks display striking similarity the study of the much simpler neuronal network in this ancient insect order will promise to provide interesting insights.