Escape Behavior--Integration and Plasticity

描述：(摘自申请人的摘要) 这笔赠款的目的是促进我们对神经科学的理解 动物如何做出行为决定以及在行为之间进行选择的级别，以及 特别强调学习和神经调节等因素 控制行为反应的可能性。同时利用行为和 电生理方法中，我们对这些过程的研究比较简单 系统，小龙虾的侧向巨型逃逸反应回路，它是 到各种形式的调制和简单的学习。对于请求的 资助期我们提出了5-羟色胺能调节倾向的实验 逃逸与居住的逃逸行为。 根据动物的不同，5-羟色胺可以促进或抑制逃逸。 或关于5-羟色胺滴度变化的确切方式 时间；拟议的实验旨在了解这些机制 依赖性，以及5-羟色胺能调节的自然功能。 突触效能的内在变化和GABA能神经元的调节 抑制有助于习惯化；拟议的实验涉及 了解这两个因素之间似乎存在的相互作用， 可能与一种长期的类似抑郁的机制有关。

DESCRIPTION:(from applicant's abstract) The purpose of this grant is to contribute to our understanding, at a neural level, of how animals make decisions to act and choose between actions, with a particular emphasis on factors such as learning and neuromodulation that control the likelihood of behavioral responses. Utilizing both behavioral and electrophysiological methods, we study these processes in a relatively simple system, the lateral giant escape reaction circuit of crayfish, which is subject to a variety of forms of modulation and of simple learning. For the requested funding period we propose experiments on serotonergic modulation of tendency to escape and on habitation of escape behavior. Serotonin can either facilitate or inhibit escape, depending on an animals previous experience or on the exact way in which serotonin titer changes over time; proposed experiments are aimed at understanding the mechanisms of these dependencies, as well as the natural function of the serotonergic modulation. Both intrinsic changes in synaptic efficacy and modulation by GABA-ergic inhibition contribute to habituation; proposed experiments are concerned to understand interactions that appear to exist between these two factors, which may be related by a long term depression-like mechanism.