Anatomical Tracing of Activated Brain Circuits

描述(由申请人提供)： 神经生物学的一个主要困难是识别功能神经元通路。经典的解剖学追踪技术可以确定大脑区域之间的总体连接。然而，信息存储和处理的关键方面可能反映了给定大脑区域中特定神经元亚群的激活，以响应给定的感觉输入。该项目寻求在转基因小鼠中开发一种系统，允许永久标记在给定时间框架内给定大脑区域活跃的神经元。这些神经元将被标记上蛋白质，以检测被标记神经元的轴突投射。此外，任何转基因表达的蛋白质都可以靶向这些神经元。最后，该系统还可以检测在各种行为意外情况下的电路重新激活的相对水平。开发的小鼠将在神经元处理的研究中具有广泛的用途，无论是在正常大脑功能的研究中，还是在疾病模型的研究中。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): A major difficulty in neurobiology is identifying functional neuronal pathways. Classical anatomical tracing techniques allow gross connectivity between brain regions to be determined. However, critical aspects of information storage and processing presumably reflect the activation of specific subpopulations of neurons in a given brain region in response to a given conjunction of sensory inputs. This project seeks to develop a system in transgenic mice that would allow the permanent marking of neurons that were active in a given brain region within a given time frame. The neurons would be marked with proteins that allow detection of the axonal projections of the marked neurons. In addition, any transgenically expressed protein could be targeted to these neurons. Finally, the relative level of circuit reactivation under various behavioral contingencies could also be examined with this system. The mice developed would have broad utility in studies of neuronal processing both in the study of normal brain function and in disease models.