Deciphering dopaminergic circuits required for food anticipatory activity in mice

项目总结/摘要 鉴于现代社会食物过剩，人们很容易忽视喂养的重要性。 自然界中的动物对于大多数动物来说，食物是极其稀缺的，明智地抓住机会吃东西是非常重要的。 对生存至关重要。因此，昼夜节律系统已经进化到接收许多不同的刺激- 也就是说，光，温度，食物，甚至恐惧-保持生物过程的协调，并允许 适应不断变化的条件。相对于进食来说，分辨时间的能力有很长的历史， 研究，追溯到一百多年前， 蜜蜂和老鼠然而，行为适应定时喂食背后的神经回路， 不断地逃离我们的掌控在这个项目中，我将利用条件遗传学，病毒分离， 化学遗传学工具，以确定多巴胺人口（解剖学和遗传学），这是必要的 用于实验室小鼠食物预期活动的行为表达。从这里，我们将建立一个更 一群选择性的多巴胺神经元投射到纹状体， 可以通知大脑的计时系统有食物了。

Project Summary/Abstract Given the over-abundance of food in modern society, it is easy to lose sight of the importance of feeding to animals in nature. For most animals, food is extremely scarce and being wise to opportunities to eat is essential for survival. As such, the circadian system has evolved to receive a number of different stimuli— i.e., light, temperature, food, and even fear—to keep biological processes coordinated and allow for adaptation to ever changing conditions. The ability to tell time relative to feeding has a long history of research, going back more than one hundred years hundred years with behavioral observations of honeybees and rats. However, the neural circuitry behind adaptation of behavior to timed feeding has continually escaped our grasp. In this project, I will utilize conditional genetics, viral restorations, and chemogenetic tools to identify the dopamine population (both anatomically and genetically) that is required for the behavioral expression of food anticipatory activity in lab mice. From here, we will build out a more comprehensive characterization of how a select population of dopamine neurons projecting to the striatum can inform the time keeping systems of the brain that food is available.