Naturalistic and translational decision making assays

决策是所有动物日常生活的一个重要方面。从低层次的知觉和知觉运动引导的决定是否和何时过马路（人类）或选择逃跑或觅食路径（动物）到高层次的决定选择合适的栖息地（动物）或买房子（人类）。虽然有些决定只与人类有关（例如买房），但许多其他决定对不同的哺乳动物物种来说是共同的（例如选择最佳行动方案以避免直接威胁或在陌生环境中航行）。这些决定可能同样受到焦虑和压力等内部状态以及认知灵活性和成瘾倾向等个性特征的影响。了解人类糖尿病，特别是如何因素，如压力和/或临床疾病可能会影响糖尿病是至关重要的。为了充分理解人类DM的机制，我们需要考虑行为以及如何将其与驱动这种行为的神经元底物联系起来。揭示详细的神经基质只能在实验动物中实现，其中可以执行特定神经元回路的记录和操作。因此，一个关键的挑战是建立适当的行为分析，可以可靠地在人类和啮齿动物之间转换。在这个项目中，我们将开发一系列的原则性决策任务，可用于动物和人类。人类任务将利用曼彻斯特大学虚拟现实研究（VR 2）设施（https：//sites.manchester. ac. uk/VR 2/）中提供的虚拟现实（VR）技术。VR使我们能够将人类置于虚拟现实世界的DM任务中，同时保留对关键实验变量的控制。此外，在VR中，可以对人类施加现实的压力，以模仿啮齿动物的等效任务。啮齿类动物的任务将在真实的物理环境中执行，以匹配人类任务的参数。我们预计，从这个项目的研究结果将是重要的奠定了一个试验平台的范式为未来的调查DM的神经基板，并最终开发基于神经的模型改变决策（例如在成瘾），以支持新的treatment.This工作符合BBSRC的主题：推进生物科学发现的前沿下，了解生活的规则副标题。我们将探讨人类和啮齿动物选择的本质。此外，该研究有可能在战略挑战中支持未来的研究：生物科学对健康的综合理解。了解选择机制（认知、知觉和知觉运动）对这些过程发生改变（例如成瘾）的个人和临床群体具有影响。这项工作是必要的，使我们能够在这些群体中开发改变决策的神经模型，并可能为这些疾病的未来治疗奠定基础。该项目将受益于体内技能补充，使我们能够理解行为和运动策略（通过视觉运动和头部/身体和眼睛运动）。这些将在自由运动期间进行测量，以确定视觉环境的哪一部分被动物视网膜捕获。实现这一点将有助于了解啮齿动物如何定位眼睛以检测显著的视觉刺激（例如接近的捕食者），它们如何协调眼睛运动与自发行为，如运动和饲养，以及这些运动决策如何由环境参数驱动。在体内训练部分，学生将培养以下技能：长期植入微型摄像机，用于跟踪自由移动动物的眼球运动视觉引导行为的行为测试，并记录眼球和头部/身体运动

Decision making is a crucial aspect of everyday life for all animals. From lower-level perceptual and perceptuo-motor guided decisions about whether and when to cross a road (humans) or choosing an escape or foraging path (animals) to higher-level decisions about selecting a suitable habitat (animals) or buying a house (humans). While some decisions are only relevant for humans (e.g. buying a house) many others are common to different mammalian species (e.g. choosing on the best course of action to avoid immediate threats or navigate an unfamiliar environment). Such decisions are likely to be similarly affected by internal states such as anxiety and stress and personality traits such as cognitive flexibility and tendency towards addiction. Understanding human DM and, in particular, how factors such as stress and/or clinical disorders might impact upon DM is critical. To fully understand mechanisms of DM in human requires us to consider both behaviour and how this links to the neuronal substrates that drive this behaviour. Revealing the detailed neuronal substrate can only be achieved in experimental animals in which recording and manipulation of specific neuronal circuitry can be performed. A key challenge then is to establish appropriate behavioural assays that can be reliably translated between humans and rodents.In this project we will develop a range of principled decision-making tasks that are comparable for animals and humans. Human tasks will take advantage of Virtual Reality (VR) technologies available in the Virtual Reality Research (VR2) Facility at the University of Manchester (https://sites.manchester.ac.uk/VR2/). VR enables us to place the human in a virtual real-world DM tasks while retaining control of key experimental variables. In addition in VR it is possible to impose realistic stressors on the human to mimic equivalent tasks in rodents. Rodent tasks will be performed in real physical environments adapted to match parameters of the human tasks. We anticipate that the findings from this project will be important for laying down a testbed of paradigms for future investigation of neural substrates of DM and eventually developing neural-based models of altered decision making (e.g. in addiction) to underpin novel treatments.This work fits within the BBSRC's Theme: Advancing the Frontiers of Bioscience Discovery under the Understanding the Rules of Life subheading. We will be addressing basic questions regarding the nature of choice in both humans and rodents. In addition, the research has the potential to underpin future research within the strategic challenge: Bioscience for an Integrated Understanding of Health. Understanding the mechanisms of choice (both cognitive, perceptual and perceptuo-motor) has implications for individuals and clinical groups in which such processes are altered (e.g. in addiction). This work is necessary to enable us to develop neural models of altered decision making in such groups and may underpin future treatments for these conditions. This project will benefit from an in vivo skills supplement to enable us to understand behaviour and motor strategies (via visuo-motor and head/body and eye movement). These will be measured during free movement to determine which part of the visual environment is captured by animal retinae. Achieving this will enable to understand how rodents position their eyes to detect salient visual stimuli (e.g. an approaching predator), how they coordinate eye movements with spontaneous behaviours such as locomotion and rearing and how such motor decisions are driven by parameters of the environment. Under the in vivo training component the student will develop skills in: Chronic implantation of miniature cameras for tracking eye movements in freely moving animals Behavioural tests of visually guided behaviours paired with recordings of eye and head/body movements