Statistical Analysis of Hippocampal Information Encoding

描述(申请人提供)：大鼠海马区的神经元在空间信息编码中起着重要作用。这种内侧颞叶结构不同区域的神经元具有不同的空间和时间放电特性，这表明信息通过这些区域的处理方式有所不同。这个项目的具体目标是：1)建立准确的统计模型，描述CA3区、下丘脑和内嗅皮层中单个神经元的放电活动与相关协变量之间的关系，如动物在环境中的位置、theta相、theta相进动、爆发、运行速度和其他神经元的放电历史；2)建立准确的统计模型，描述神经元集合的联合放电活动，以便测量同一区域或不同区域内同时记录的神经元集合之间的协调放电活动模式；3)检验行为对CA3、CA1、下丘脑和深内嗅皮层单个神经元活动的影响是否与动物执行的任务不同有关的假设；以及4)检验CA3、CA1、下丘脑和深内嗅皮层中协调的多个神经元活动模式根据动物执行的任务是否依赖完整的海马体而不同的假设。协调活动的这些差异可能会让我们深入了解大鼠海马体如何维持相关空间信息的表征，并促进这些信息向其他大脑区域的转移。实验方法将包括使用多电极阵列同时记录海马结构中神经元的活动，以及应用点过程理论来开发准确的统计方法来表征海马群的放电特性及其与行为和神经生理协变量的关系。广泛的长期目标是：开发一种为分析多电极记录的棘波序列量身定做的统计范式；并表征海马结构中的整体神经元活动如何代表短期记忆中的信息，以及它如何帮助编码和检索长期记忆中的信息。这项实验研究的潜在健康益处是更好地理解海马体依赖记忆过程的基本神经生理学，并洞察如何开发新的记忆障碍治疗方法。更准确的神经元动力学特征也可能导致更多生理上健全的方法来创建机器-大脑接口和设计神经假体设备。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Neurons in the rat hippocampal formation play an important role in spatial information encoding. The neurons in the different regions of this medial temporal lobe structure have different spatial and temporal firing properties, suggesting differences in the way information is processed through the regions. The specific aims of this project are to: 1) develop accurate statistical models of single neurons in CA3, the subiculum, and the entorhinal cortex that describe the relationship between neural spiking activity and relevant covariates such as the position of the animal in its environment, theta phase, theta phase precession, bursting, running velocity and the spiking history of other neurons; 2) develop accurate statistical models that describe the joint spiking activity of sets of neurons in order to measure coordinated spiking activity patterns across an ensemble of simultaneously recorded neurons within the same region or a different region; 3) test the hypothesis that the effects of behavioral correlates on single neuron activity in CA3, CA1, subiculum and the deep entorhinal cortex differ according to whether the animal is performing a task that either does or does not depend on an intact hippocampus; and 4) test the hypothesis that patterns of coordinated multiple neuron activity in CA3, CA1, the subiculum and the deep entorhinal cortex differ according to whether the animal is performing a task that either does or does not depend on an intact hippocampus. These differences in coordinated activity may offer insight into how the rat hippocampus maintains representations of relevant spatial information and facilitates transfer of that information to other brain regions. The experimental methods will include use of multielectrode arrays to record simultaneously the activity of neurons in the hippocampal formation, as well as application of point process theory to develop accurate statistical methods to characterize the firing properties of hippocampal ensembles and their relation to behavioral and neurophysiological covariates. The broad long-term objectives are to: develop a statistical paradigm tailormade for the analysis of spike trains from multiple electrode recordings; and characterize how ensemble neuronal activity in the hippocampal formation represents information in short-term memory and how it aids in encoding and retrieval of information from long-term memory. The potential health benefits of the experimental research are a better understanding of the basic neurophysiology of hippocampal dependent memory processes and insight into how to develop new treatments for memory dysfunction. More accurate characterizations of neuronal dynamics may also lead to more physiologically-sound approaches to creating machine-brain interfaces and designing neural prosthetic devices.