Function of Neural Activity in Developing Retina

描述(申请人提供)：自发的机制和功能 将研究发育中的哺乳动物视网膜的神经活动。不成熟 视网膜神经元自发地以波的形式产生相关的活动 扫描整个视网膜神经节细胞层的动作电位。这些 视网膜波发生在视网膜神经节的发育期 在外侧膝状体中，细胞轴突分离成眼睛特有的层。 原子核。使用光学成像、电生理学和 提出了用模型来研究细胞间耦合的机制。 这是视网膜波传播的基础。此外，药理方面 显著改变相关放电模式的操作 通过视网膜波和缺乏视网膜波的转基因小鼠将被用来 研究它们在视网膜向外侧投射发展中的作用 膝状核。这项工作的一个结果将是确定关键的 用于驾驶的视网膜波活动模式的参数 依赖活动的发育过程。这项工作将检验这一假说 这种自发的、相关的活动负责适当地组织 在发育中的神经系统中的突触，并将导致进一步的 对活性依赖的细胞和分子基础的理解 在发展的视觉系统中的过程。这项工作应该会进一步推动我们的 对指导正常发展的组织原则的理解 对人类神经系统的影响，使我们有可能了解 神经性出生缺陷，并设计出策略，让紧张的 损伤后再生起作用的神经回路的系统。

DESCRIPTION (Provided by applicant): The mechanisms and function of spontaneous neural activity in the developing mammalian retina will be studied. Immature retinal neurons spontaneously generate correlated activity in the form of waves of action potentials that sweep across the retinal ganglion cell layer. These "retinal waves" occur during the developmental period when retinal ganglion cell axons are segregating into eye-specific layers in the lateral geniculate nucleus. Experiments using a combination optical imaging, electrophysiology and modeling are proposed to investigate the mechanisms of intercellular coupling that underlie the propagation of retinal waves. In addition, pharmacological manipulations that significantly alter the correlated firing patterns induced by retinal waves and transgenic mice lacking retinal waves will be used to investigate their role in the development of retinal projections to the lateral geniculate nucleus. One result of this work will be to determine the critical parameters of the activity patterns generated by retinal waves for driving activity dependent developmental processes. This work will test the hypothesis that spontaneous, correlated activity is responsible for proper organization of synapses in the developing nervous system and will lead to a further understanding of the cellular and molecular basis for activity-dependent processes in the developing visual system. This work should further our understanding of the organizing principles that govern the normal development of the human nervous system, making it possible to understand the origin of neurological birth defects and to devise strategies that allow the nervous system to regenerate functioning neural circuits after injury.