Taste and Somatosensory Processing

项目摘要 味觉与不同动物的食物吸引力和喂养偏好有关。味道 偏好与影响营养状况和健康的人类消化系统疾病有关。然而， 味觉驱动摄食偏好或回避的基础仍然知之甚少。 一个中心问题是大脑如何呈现味觉快乐学的信息。在啮齿类动物中， 味觉信息到达脑干臂旁核。臂旁神经元部分 多模态我们实验室的最新数据显示味觉刺激臂旁区的神经元 它整合了来自全身传入神经的厌恶性感觉和伤害性信息。我们的目标是 为了了解味觉信息是否由臂旁复合体中广泛整合的神经元处理， 如果传统意义上的味觉神经元构成了一个亚群 这些细胞。这些问题对于理解组织的功能性组织具有重要意义。 味觉回路和味觉和其他感官的享乐值编码的神经基础。在目标#1中，我们 将在麻醉小鼠中使用体内神经生理学和光遗传学电路映射， 研究臂旁神经元对口腔味觉刺激和伤害性刺激的敏感性 由脊髓传入神经提供的身体末端的刺激。将评价臂旁神经元的 杏仁核与情绪影响有关。味觉和味觉之间的中心相互作用 和脊髓体感刺激也将被研究。此外，我们将讨论如何抑制输入从 杏仁核影响臂旁味觉整合细胞的味觉和躯体感觉敏感性。最后， 这项研究将使用光学标记的遗传类型的臂旁神经元参与厌恶 和保护行为，以确定是否味觉综合臂旁神经元是这些细胞。目标2 将在测量味觉引导行为的过程中使用这种遗传细胞类别的可逆沉默， 确定这种臂旁神经元类型在先天味觉偏好中的作用。总的来说，这些研究 目的阐明臂旁味觉活性神经元的新神经回路和遗传特征， 与它们在感觉价处理中的功能和作用有关。由此产生的数据也将影响人们的品味 感觉可以与CNS中的疼痛相关信号相互作用并调节CNS中的疼痛相关信号。

Project summary The sense of taste is associated with food appeal and feeding preferences in diverse animals. Taste preferences have ties to human ingestive disorders that impact nutritional status and health. Yet the neural basis by which taste sensations drive ingestive preference or avoidance remains only poorly understood. A central question concerns how the brain represents information about taste hedonics. In rodents, neural messages for taste arrive at the brain stem parabrachial nuclei. Parabrachial neurons are partly multimodal. Recent data from our lab show gustatory sensations stimulate neurons in parabrachial regions that integrate aversive sensory and nociceptive messages from afferents across the body. Our goal here is to understand if taste messages are processed by broadly integrative neurons in the parabrachial complex that communicate with the amygdala, and if traditionally defined taste neurons constitute a subpopulation of these cells. These questions have key implications for understanding the functional organization of gustatory circuits and the neural basis of hedonic value coding for taste and other senses. In Aim #1, we will use in vivo neurophysiology and optogenetic circuit mapping in anesthetized mice to systematically study the sensitivity of parabrachial neurons to gustatory stimulation of the oral cavity and nociceptive stimulation of body extremities supplied by spinal afferents. Parabrachial neurons will be evaluated for projections to the amygdala, which is associated with emotional affect. Central interactions between taste and spinal somatosensory stimuli will also be studied. Moreover, we will address how inhibitory input from the amygdala influences taste and somatosensory sensitivity in parabrachial taste-integrative cells. Finally, studies in this Aim will use optical tagging of a genetic type of parabrachial neuron involved with aversive and protective behaviors to determine if gustatory-integrative parabrachial neurons are these cells. Aim #2 will use reversible silencing of this genetic cell class during measurement of taste-guided behaviors to determine the role of this parabrachial neuron type in innate gustatory preferences. Overall, these studies aim to elucidate novel neural circuit and genetic features of gustatory-active parabrachial neurons that pertain to their function and role in sensory valence processing. Resulting data will also bear on how taste sensations may interact with and modulate pain-related signals in the CNS.