RECONSTRUCTION OF BRAIN CIRCUITS

这个子项目是利用资源的许多研究子项目之一。 由NIH/NCRR资助的中心拨款提供。对子项目的主要支持 子项目的首席调查员可能是由其他来源提供的， 包括美国国立卫生研究院的其他来源。为子项目列出的总成本可能 表示该子项目使用的中心基础设施的估计数量， 不是由NCRR赠款提供给次级项目或次级项目工作人员的直接资金。 本项目的目的是研究谷氨酸能视网膜输入在GABA能和谷氨酸能突触后盖神经元上形成突触接触的机制。传入投射与谷氨酸能和GABA能突触后神经元形成联系。从单个传入到不同类型突触后神经元的联系有不同的性质，如传递的强度或对一系列活动的可塑性。这些细胞类型特定突触属性的差异已被证明是信息处理的关键。此外，与兴奋性神经元和抑制性神经元的联系对视觉体验的变化也是不同的敏感。我们的工作表明，单个视网膜顶盖轴突与兴奋性和抑制性顶盖神经元形成直接联系，并且联系的强度因突触后细胞的身份而不同。我们建议通过对完整非洲爪哇视觉系统的视网膜轴突及其靶点进行连续块面扫描(SBFSEM)重建，来测试谷氨酸能视网膜神经节细胞与谷氨酸能或GABA能突触后细胞的超微结构特征和对传入活动模式变化的反应。

This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. Primary support for the subproject and the subproject's principal investigator may have been provided by other sources, including other NIH sources. The Total Cost listed for the subproject likely represents the estimated amount of Center infrastructure utilized by the subproject, not direct funding provided by the NCRR grant to the subproject or subproject staff. The goal of this project is to investigate the mechanisms by which glutamatergic retinal inputs form synaptic contacts on GABAergic and glutamatergic postsynaptic tectal neurons. Afferent projections form connections with both glutamatergic and GABAergic postsynaptic neurons. The connections from single afferents to different types of postsynaptic neurons have different properties, such as the strength of transmission or plasticity in response to trains of activity. These differences in cell-type specific synaptic properties have been shown to be critical for information processing. Furthermore, connections with excitatory and inhibitory neurons are differentially sensitive to changes in visual experience. Our work has shown that individual retinotectal axons form direct connections with both excitatory and inhibitory tectal neurons and that the strength of the connections differs according to the identity of the postsynaptic cell. We propose to test whether glutamatergic retinal ganglion cell connections with glutamatergic or GABAergic postsynaptic cells differ in their ultrastructural properties and response to changes in afferent activity patterns using serial block-face SEM (SBFSEM) reconstruction of retinal axons and their targets from intact Xenopus visual system.