NEURONAL STRUCTURE AND FUNCTION IN A SENSORY PROCESSOR

由于其相对简单，电感系统是理想的 适用于行为方法和细胞方法的集成， 因此，导致了对刺激感知的最详细的解释 以及单细胞水平的运动性能。电感 与更多人分享感官信息编码的基本原则 高级感官模式，如鸟类的视觉和听力 从而为研究提供了一个方便的模型系统 一般的信息处理的神经元机制。多数 值得注意的是，电鱼的一些行为反应是如此强健 它们在生理准备过程中保持完好，从而允许 在行为和细胞水平上的同步研究。 目前的项目将继续探索结构和 半圆环的功能组织，即层状的中脑 与哺乳动物下丘同源的结构，它 处理电感觉信息的时间和空间方面。 使用石英玻璃吸管(由新的激光抽取器 Sutter Company)，甚至非常小的细胞，胞体直径在范围内 5微米，现在可以在细胞内穿透和标记。这 提供了标记和记录来自神经元的机会，可以 在过去几乎没有被探索过。这些小神经元类型中的一种 在圆环的第6层，并计算到达的时间差异 两个输入，相当于耳间时间的处理 听觉系统的差异。它们的时间分辨率 神经元似乎在微秒范围内。 除了对基本完好的鱼类进行研究外，我们还打算探索 薄片环面的功能和结构性质 准备工作。由于解剖组织的投射到 环，一个人可以近乎自然的方式刺激环的第6层 并探讨小细胞在不同压力下的生理特性。 增强了切片制剂的机械稳定性。

Due to its relative simplicity, the electrosensory system is ideally suited for the integration of behavioral and cellular approaches and, therefore, has led to most detailed explanations of stimulus perception and motor performance at the single-cell level. The electric sense shares basic principles in the coding of sensory information with more advanced sensory modalities, such as vision and audition in birds and mammals, and thus provides a convenient model system for studying neuronal mechanisms of information processing in general. Most significantly, some behavioral responses of electric fish are so robust that they remain intact in physiological preparations, thus allowing simultaneous studies at the behavioral and cellular level. The current project will continue to explore the structural and functional organization of the torus semicircularis, a laminated midbrain structure homologous to the inferior colliculus of mammals, which processes temporal and spatial aspects of electrosensory information. By using quartz glass pipettes (prepared by the new 'laser puller' of the Sutter Company), even very small cells, with soma diameters in the range of 5 micra, can now be penetrated and labelled intracellularly. This offers the opportunity of labelling and recording from neurons that could barely be explored in the past. One of these small-neuron types resides in lamina 6 of the torus and computes temporal disparities in the arrival of two inputs, comparable to the processing of interaural time differences in auditory systems. The temporal resolution of these neurons appears to be in the microsecond range. In addition to studies in largely intact fish, we intend to explore functional and structural properties of the torus in slice preparations. Due to the anatomical organization of projections to the torus, one could stimulate lamina 6 of the torus in a near natural manner and explore the physiological properties of small cells under the enhanced mechanical stability of a slice preparation.