Contextual Representation of Tactile Information in Mouse Primary Somatosensory Cortex

职业规划和职业发展环境：伊曼纽尔博士是大卫金蒂博士和克里斯哈维博士实验室的联合博士后研究员，他们致力于学术研究人员的职业生涯。伊曼纽尔博士，金蒂和哈维已经制定了一个12点的职业发展计划，将使伊曼纽尔博士的过渡到一个独立的研究职位。该计划整合了哈佛医学院的可用资源，包括神经生物学系和更广泛的哈佛医学院社区的正式和非正式培训。正式培训包括参加关于专业发展和负责任地开展研究的研讨会，以及让更广泛的科学界参与出版描述伊曼纽尔博士工作的手稿和在国际会议上的发言。总体而言，该计划将为伊曼纽尔博士过渡到独立职业做好最佳准备。研究计划：该项目的目标是确定初级躯体感觉皮层中复杂特征的表征如何由皮层和皮层下神经回路产生，以及这些表征如何适应动物的行为。具体而言，本提案中的实验将使用小鼠遗传方法和体内电生理学来解决初级躯体感觉皮层中的速度、方向和定向调谐的神经基础（目标1）。结合在体内的电生理学与遗传操作和记录从初级躯体感觉皮层将确定在何种程度上，这些皮层表示是必要的，并适应性能的触觉行为（目标2）。最后，将自由运动动物的体内电生理学与现代计算机视觉相结合，以监测行为和施加在皮肤上的力，将确定初级躯体感觉皮层中的神经元在自然运动和环境相互作用期间如何参与（目标3）。总之，这些实验将使我们深入了解中枢神经系统中感觉处理的基本过程。

Career Plan and Environment of Career Development: Dr. Emanuel is a joint postdoctoral fellow in the laboratories of Drs. David Ginty and Chris Harvey who is dedicated to a career as an academic researcher. Drs. Emanuel, Ginty, and Harvey have developed a 12-point career development plan that will enable Dr. Emanuel's transition to an independent research position. This plan incorporates resources available at Harvard Medical School, including formal and informal training from the community within the Department of Neurobiology and the broader Harvard Medical School community. Formal training includes attendance at seminars on professional development and responsible conduct of research as well as engaging the wider scientific community with publication of manuscripts describing Dr. Emanuel's work and presentations at international meetings. Overall, this plan will optimally prepare Dr. Emanuel for the transition to an independent career. Research Plan: The goal of this project is to determine how the representation of complex features in primary somatosensory cortex are produced by cortical and subcortical neural circuitry and how these representations are adapted for the behavior of the animal. Specifically, the experiments in this proposal will use mouse genetic approaches and in vivo electrophysiology to address the neural underpinnings of speed, direction, and orientation tuning in primary somatosensory cortex (Aim 1). Combining in vivo electrophysiology with genetic manipulations and recording from primary somatosensory cortex will determine the extent to which these cortical representations are necessary for and adapt to performance of tactile behaviors (Aim 2). Finally, combining in vivo electrophysiology in freely moving animals with modern computer vision for monitoring behavior and the force applied to the skin will determine how neurons in primary somatosensory cortex are engaged during natural movements and environmental interactions (Aim 3). In all, these experiments will yield insight into the fundamental processes underlying sensory processing in the central nervous system.