FUNCTION AND PLASTICITY IN A MAPPED SENSORY SYSTEM

本提案的长期目标是了解 产生组织和功能的发展机制 神经系统中的感觉地图。 这项工作的重点是 调节可塑性在感觉地图适应中的可能作用 生物体的生长或环境影响。 目标是了解一个 地形映射的感觉系统，并确定机制 调节和改善感觉神经元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 一个相对简单的昆虫系统，蟋蟀的尾觉系统， 包括map的初级传入和 “解释”该图的中间神经元被很好地表征。 本提案的具体目的是描述结构和 该系统的功能组织，并确定是否活动- 依赖机制参与的形成或罚款 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 可以在突触处分析系统的调节可塑性， 蜂窝和系统级。 该系统将进行解剖分析，使用基于计算机的神经元 重建系统，以构建地形图的立体定位图谱 地图，和共聚焦显微镜观察活动的定位- 依赖性染料。 细胞外和细胞内记录的结合 技术将被用来研究该系统的生理发展， 并测试在特定的感官环境中饲养动物的效果， 环境. 这项研究将有助于更好地了解本组织， 一般感觉系统的功能和发育机制 参与它们的生长和适应环境， 开发.

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.