Effects of Early Experience on Somatosensory Systems in Voles

描述（由申请人提供）：后代通过养育和其他过程（如新生儿接触新奇事物）接受不同的早期体感刺激。这种早期的躯体感觉刺激对应激反应和社会行为的发展有长期的影响。躯体感觉刺激的这些早期差异也可能有助于感觉功能的正常和病理发育。各种各样的发育障碍共有许多特征，包括发育时间轴和社会行为和躯体感觉功能的失调。目前的建议的目的是研究早期环境的影响，特别是早期的躯体感觉刺激对后来的社会和感觉行为的影响，并在啮齿动物模型，草原田鼠（Microtus ochrogaster）的初级躯体感觉皮层（S1）的功能组织和大小。首先，将研究来自父母的后代的正常发育，这些父母在体感刺激方面表现出极端的自然个体差异。然后，我们将研究后代从一个处理模型已知产生赤字的社会行为，并已被证明发挥其影响，通过差异早期体感刺激的年轻人。断奶后，将检查后代的焦虑、社会行为和感觉运动门控，以及S1的功能组织和大小，及其丘脑皮质和皮质-皮质连接。最后，所有这些变量都将相互关联：早期来自父母的体感刺激，后来的社交，焦虑和感觉行为，以及S1的神经解剖组织。公共卫生相关性：许多发育障碍表现出社会行为和感觉功能的变化。这项计划将研究早期生活中的环境因素如何导致行为和躯体感觉皮层功能的变化。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Offspring receive differential early somatosensory stimulation through parenting and other processes, such as neonatal exposure to novelty. This early somatosensory stimulation is known to have long-term effects on the development of stress reactivity and social behavior. These early differences in somatosensory stimulation may also contribute both to normal and pathological development of sensory function. A wide variety of developmental disorders share many characteristics including a developmental timeline and dysregulation of both social behavior and somatosensory function. The aim of the current proposal is to examine the effects of early environment, in particular the effects of early somatosensory stimulation on later social and sensory behavior, and on the functional organization and size of the primary somatosensory cortex (S1) in a rodent model, the prairie vole (Microtus ochrogaster). First, normal development will be studied in offspring from parents which demonstrate extremes of natural individual variation in somatosensory stimulation. We will then examine offspring from a handling model known to produce deficits in social behavior, and which has been shown to exert its effects through differential early somatosensory stimulation of young. Following weaning, anxiety, social behavior, and sensorimotor gating in the offspring will be examined, as well as the functional organization and size of S1, and its thalamocortical and cortico-cortical connections. Finally, all of these variables will be correlated: early somatosensory stimulation received from parents, later social, anxiety, and sensory behavior, and neuroanatomical organization of S1. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Many developmental disorders exhibit changes in both social behavior and sensory function. This proposal will investigate how environmental factors in early life can lead to changes in behavior and in the function of the somatosensory cortex.