Brain Registration and Histology

项目摘要：核心4，脑配准和通路追踪 工作记忆是一种在头脑中暂时保存多条信息以进行操作的能力， 对几乎所有认知能力都至关重要这一多方面的研究项目旨在全面 在多个大脑区域中剖析这种能力的神经回路机制。要研究的行为是 一种基于感官证据逐渐积累的决策任务，因此依赖于 在工作记忆上。要全面了解这种行为与大脑功能的关系， 多层次的解释：从特定区域的神经活动到这些区域如何相互作用， 通过特定的途径形成全脑网络。这些层次的分析需要不同的技术方法， 它们通常很难严格地相互关联。这一核心将促进严谨性和可重复性， 通过制作一个解剖框架来标准化和比较各种类型的拟议研究 将被收集的数据。该设施将在建立一个广泛的综合性 项目的结构。首先，它将制作标准化的功能地图， 在细胞分辨率成像或失活研究之前确定视觉皮层区域的边界。 第二，它将所有研究的大脑区域登记到解剖学背景中，包括连接性， 功能意义。自动细胞识别方法将用于调查直接成像区域 以及间接连接的区域，并对神经元和其他感兴趣的对象进行分类。第三，支持 通过突触进行长距离追踪，以确定所涉及的遥远大脑区域之间的连接路径 收集证据第四，它将把这些信息组织到一个关系数据库中， 实验，以一种可以与神经科学研究社区共享的格式。作为技术， 随着时间的推移，功能映射，注册和跟踪进展，该设施将评估新方法，采用 那些将大大提高核心能力的项目，并培训项目人员使用这些项目。采取 总之，这些功能对于将记录的和扰动的神经活动置于全脑范围内至关重要。 解剖学背景，这将使个人实验产生的信息的整合， 将这些技术整合到一个连贯的理论框架中。

Project Summary: Core 4, Brain Registration and Pathway Tracing    Working memory, the ability to temporarily hold multiple pieces of information in mind for manipulation, is  central to virtually all cognitive abilities. This multi-component research project aims to comprehensively  dissect the neural circuit mechanisms of this ability across multiple brain areas. The behavior to be studied is  a type of decision-making task that is based on the gradual accumulation of sensory evidence and thus relies  on working memory. A full understanding of how this behavior relates to this brain function requires  explanation at multiple levels: from neural activity in particular regions to how those regions interact in  brain-wide networks via specific pathways. These levels of analysis require distinct technical approaches,  which are often difficult to relate to one another rigorously. This Core will promote rigor and reproducibility in  the proposed research by producing an anatomical framework to standardize and compare the various types  of data that will be collected. The facility will serve several essential functions in building a broad integrative  structure for the project. First, it will produce standardized functional maps that will be used to accurately  determine the boundaries of visual cortical regions before cellular-resolution imaging or inactivation studies.  Second, it will register all studied brain areas into an anatomical context that includes connectivity and  functional significance. Automated cell-recognition methods will be used to survey directly imaged regions  and indirectly connected regions, and to classify neurons and other objects of interest. Third, it will support  long-distance tracing across synapses to identify paths of connectivity between distant brain regions involved  in evidence accumulation. Fourth, it will organize this information in a relational database that links all the  experiments, in a format that can be shared with the neuroscience research community. As technologies for  functional mapping, registration, and tracing advance over time, this facility will evaluate new methods, adopt  those that will substantially improve the Core’s capabilities, and train project personnel in their use. Taken  together, these functions are essential for placing recorded and perturbed neural activity into a brain-wide  anatomical context, which will enable the integration of information produced by individual experiments and  techniques into a coherent theoretical framework.