Corticothalamic ensembles for multimodal salience coding

本计画探讨行为功能是如何借由小鼠感觉丘脑中的神经元集合来计算。基于我们的初步观察，即丘脑中的感觉表征是依赖于上下文和多模式的，我们将使用电生理和成像方法来研究简单而自然的行为，如搅拌和运动过程中的整体生成。在一个客观的检查范式，我们将测试的假设，丘脑合奏代表知觉刺激的显着性。最后，我们将测试的因果关系参与皮质丘脑的相互作用，丘脑合奏招聘。总的来说，我们期望更好地理解上下文相关的感觉处理。

This project investigates how behavioural functions are computed by putative neuronal ensembles in the sensory thalamus of mice. Building on our preliminary observations that sensory representations in the thalamus are context-dependent and multimodal, we will use electrophysiological and imaging approaches to study ensemble generation during simple yet natural behaviours, such as whisking and locomotion. In an object examination paradigm, we will test the hypothesis that thalamic ensembles represent perceptual stimulus salience. Finally, we will test the causal involvement of corticothalamic interactions in thalamic ensemble recruitment. Overall, we expect a better understanding of context-dependent sensory processing.