Neural Basis of Behavioral Arousal

描述（由申请人提供）：所有生物都需要对新的刺激做出快速反应，而不是不断地从一种行为转移到另一种行为。实现这一目标的一个重要手段是在引起觉醒的刺激不再存在后，诱导一种特定刺激的唤醒状态，这种状态会被记住一段时间。唤醒状态增加了某些行为发生的概率，降低了敌对行为发生的概率。在本应用中提出的长期研究目标是表征支持觉醒持续的神经机制。具体来说，我们将测试一个假设，即高阶调节神经元的行为负责唤醒的记忆方面。我们建议在进食和泌乳喂养的背景下研究唤醒。我们假设，在食物引起的觉醒状态被诱导之前，喂食CPG处于一种既不致力于产生摄取反应也不致力于产生摄取反应的状态。相反，CPG产生的反应沿着一个连续体下降，即可以产生具有摄取和排泄特征的中间反应。随着觉醒的发展，我们提出进食CPG的状态以一种增加产生摄取反应的可能性和减少产生摄取反应的可能性的方式发生改变。我们假设调节性的血清素能和肽能神经元激活的细胞机制对于CPG状态中这种改变的持久性很重要。在提议的工作中，我们将采取多学科方法，即，我们将使用电生理，形态学和生化技术来测试我们的假设。实验将在完整、半完整和分离的神经系统制剂中进行。当对新刺激做出快速反应的需要和坚持一种行为的需要之间的平衡被扰乱时，可能会出现严重的行为病理（例如，强迫症、成人注意力缺陷障碍和抑郁症）。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): All organisms need to respond rapidly to new stimuli without being continuously shifted from one behavior to another. An important means of achieving this goal is to induce a stimulus-specific arousal state that is remembered for some time after the stimulus that elicits the arousal is no longer present. The arousal state increases the probability of occurrence of some behaviors and decreases the probability of occurrence of antagonistic behaviors. The long-range goal of the research proposed in this application is to characterize the neural mechanisms that support the persistence of arousal. Specifically we will test a hypothesis that postulates that actions of higher order modulatory neurons are responsible for mnemonic aspects of arousal. We propose to study arousal in the context of ingestive and egestive feeding in Aplysia. We hypothesize that before the state of food-induced arousal is induced, the feeding CPG is in a state that is not dedicated to generating either ingestive or egestive responses. Instead the CPG generates responses that fall along a continuum, i.e., intermediate responses that have both ingestive and egestive characteristics can be generated. As arousal develops we propose that the state of the feeding CPG is altered in a manner that increases the probability of generating ingestive responses and decreases the probability of generating egestive responses. We hypothesize that modulatory serotonergic and peptidergic neurons activate cellular mechanisms that are important for the persistence of such alterations in the state of the CPG. In proposed work we will take a multidisciplinary approach, i.e., we will use electrophysiological, morphological and biochemical techniques to test our hypotheses. Experiments will be conducted in intact, semi-intact and isolated nervous system preparations. When the balance between the need to respond rapidly to new stimuli and the need to persist with one behavior is perturbed, serious behavioral pathologies may emerge (e.g., obsessive compulsive disorders, adult attention deficit disorders, and depression).