FUNCTION AND PLASTICITY IN A MAPPED SENSORY SYSTEM

这项建议的长期目标是了解 产生组织和功能的发展机制 神经系统中的感觉图。这项工作的重点是 调节可塑性在感觉图适应中的可能作用 对有机体的生长或对环境的影响。 我们的目标是了解 地形图绘制的感觉系统，并确定机制 它调节和改进感觉内的中间神经元的调谐 映射到相关的感官刺激。这些问题将在#年研究。 一种相对简单的昆虫系统，板球尾部感觉系统，在 组成地图的初级传入和初级传入 对“解释”地图的中间神经元进行了很好的描述。 这项提案的具体目标是描述结构和 这一系统的职能组织，并确定活动是否- 无论是形成还是罚款，都涉及依赖机制 调整这张地形图。使用这种制剂，细胞 结构性组织、职能和短期的基本机制 系统的调节可塑性可以在突触处进行分析， 蜂窝层和系统层。 该系统将使用基于计算机的神经元进行解剖学分析 构建地形图立体定位地图集的重建系统 MAP和共聚焦显微镜来观察活动的定位- 从属染料。细胞外记录和细胞内记录相结合 随着系统的发展，将使用各种技术对其进行生理学研究 并测试饲养特定感官动物的效果 环境。 这项研究将有助于更好地了解该组织和 感觉系统的一般功能及其发育机制 参与他们的成长和对环境的适应 发展。

The long term objectives of this proposal are to understand the developmental mechanisms which give rise to the organization and function of sensory maps in the nervous system. The focus of this work is on the possible role of regulative plasticity in the adaptations of sensory maps to growth of the organism or to environmental influences. The goals are to understand the functional organization of a topographically mapped sensory system, and to determine the mechanisms which regulate and refine the tuning of interneurons within the sensory maps to the relevant sensory stimuli. These questions will be studied in a relatively simple insect system, the cricket cercal sensory system, in which both the primary afferents that comprise the map and the primary interneurons that "interpret" the map are well characterized. The specific aims of this proposal are to describe the structural and functional organization of this system and to determine whether activity- dependent mechanisms are involved in either the formation or the fine tuning of this topographic map. Using this preparation, the cellular mechanisms underlying the structural organization, function and short term regulative plasticity of the system can be analysed at the synaptic, cellular, and systems levels. The system will be analyzed anatomically using a computer-based neuronal reconstruction system to construct a stereotaxic atlas of the topographic map, and a confocal microscope to observe the localization of activity- dependent dyes. A combination of extracellular and intracellular recording techniques will be used to study the system physiologically as it develops and to test the effects of rearing animals in specific sensory environments. This research will lead to a better understanding of the organization and function of sensory systems in general and the developmental mechanisms involved in their growth and adaptations to the environment in which they develop.