Cellular mechanisms and behavioral impacts of experience-dependent inhibitory plasticity in the accessory olfactory bulb

项目摘要/摘要 哺乳动物的生存和繁殖严重依赖它们的嗅觉系统。副嗅觉系统 AOS以其在信息素处理中的作用而闻名，是一种检测非挥发性物质的专用系统 社会化学信号。这种社会化学信号被认为有助于识别同种和异种，如 以及传达有关其他动物的生理状态的信息。有趣的是，辅助嗅觉 灯泡(AOB)是AOS中第一个也是唯一一个专用电路，它被证明改变了它处理社交的方式 一次又一次的刺激。然而，经验诱导这种可塑性的机制并不是很好。 明白了。这个项目的总体目标是更好地理解经验如何塑造神经回路。 这项拟议的研究将首先利用电生理学来识别中间神经元的生理变化。 由重复的经验引起的。此外，单细胞RNA测序将用于鉴定活性- 基因表达的依赖性变化。最后，化学发生策略将被用来操纵 中间神经元群体经历可塑性，以确定它们是否在行为输出中发挥直接作用。通过 确定AOB中间神经元的生理和基因表达的变化，并确定其行为 角色经过反复的社会经验，这项工作将有助于确定中央参与的机制 化学感觉信息的处理和确定中间神经元对哺乳动物社会的贡献 行为。

Project Summary/Abstract Mammals rely heavily on their olfactory systems for survival and reproduction. The accessory olfactory system (AOS), best known for its role in pheromone processing, is a dedicated system for the detection of non-volatile social chemosignals. Such social chemosignals are thought to help identify conspecifics and heterospecifics, as well as convey information about the physiological state of other animals. Interestingly, the accessory olfactory bulb (AOB), the first and only dedicated circuit in the AOS, has been shown to change how it processes social stimuli after experience. However, the mechanisms by which experience induces this plasticity are not well understood. The overall goal of this project is to better understand how experience can shape neural circuits. The proposed research will utilize electrophysiology to first identify physiological changes in interneurons induced by repeated experience. In addition, single cell RNA sequencing will be used to identify activity- dependent changes in gene expression. Finally, chemogenetic strategies will be used to manipulate the interneuron populations that undergo plasticity to determine if they play a direct role in behavioral output. By identifying changes in the physiology and gene expression of AOB interneurons, and determining their behavioral role after repeated social experience, this work will help identify the mechanisms involved in the central processing of chemosensory information and determine the contributions of interneurons to mammalian social behavior.