Anatomical Tracing of Activated Brain Circuits

描述（由申请人提供）： 神经生物学中的一个主要困难是识别功能性神经通路。经典的解剖追踪技术允许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特定大脑区域中特定神经元亚群的激活，以响应给定的感官输入。该项目试图在转基因小鼠中开发一种系统，该系统将允许在给定的时间范围内永久标记在给定大脑区域中活跃的神经元。神经元将被标记蛋白质，允许检测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，该系统还可以检查在各种行为突发事件下回路再激活的相对水平。开发的小鼠将在正常脑功能和疾病模型的神经元加工研究中具有广泛的用途。

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.