Inhibitory processing and social learning in the mouse accessory olfactory bulb

神经科学研究的两个主要目标是(1)了解感觉信息如何引导行为和 (2)理解行为是如何被经验改变的。在大多数感觉模式中，提取显著的 信息包括在多个高度互连的神经电路之间来回传递信号， 这使得理清哪些计算是由哪些神经元群体进行的具有挑战性。为了这个 因此，研究神经通路中的感觉处理有一个显著的优势，涉及的神经通路很少 互连电路。在小鼠中，一种特殊的化学感觉通路称为副嗅觉系统 强烈影响社会行为，只利用一个很小的神经回路来传递大部分信息 正在处理。这种小的神经回路被称为辅助嗅球(AOB)，这项拟议的研究 旨在确定AOB中的神经元如何从AOB中提取行为相关的化学感觉信息 并通过体验提炼这些信息。关键是AOB中的信息处理 依赖于几类抑制性中间神经元的功能和AOB中间神经元的神经可塑性 被认为是社交学习形式的基础。这项拟议的研究将使用电生理学、神经元 钙成像和光遗传学来确定由三个主要的 AOB中间神经元的分类。该方案利用了一种独特的AOB体外制剂，允许 研究人员在自然外周化学感觉刺激期间监测和操纵AOB神经元， 这对于将活动测量与信息内容联系起来很重要。此外，建议的 实验将确定这些中间神经元的计算如何有助于表达 社会行为。最后提出的实验将调查经验依赖的可塑性如何在一个 AOB中间神经元类别影响社会学习的形式。总体而言，拟议的研究将产生 对感觉处理、社会行为和行为的神经机制的重要见解 可塑性。

Two major goals of neuroscience research are (1) to understand how sensory information guides behavior and (2) to understand how behaviors are modified by experience. In most sensory modalities, extracting salient information involves passing signals back-and-forth between multiple, highly-interconnected neural circuits, making it challenging to disentangle which computations are made by which neuronal populations. For this reason, there is a significant advantage to studying sensory processing in neural pathways that involve few interconnected circuits. In mice, a specialized chemosensory pathway called the accessory olfactory system strongly influences social behavior and utilizes just one small neural circuit for the majority of its information processing. This small neural circuit is called the accessory olfactory bulb (AOB), and the proposed research aims to determine how neurons in the AOB extract behaviorally-relevant chemosensory information from the environment and refine that information through experience. Information processing in the AOB critically depends on the function of several classes of inhibitory interneurons, and neural plasticity in AOB interneurons is thought to underlie forms of social learning. The proposed research will use electrophysiology, neuronal calcium imaging, and optogenetics to determine the specific sensory computations performed by three major classes of AOB interneurons. The proposal leverages a unique ex vivo preparation of the AOB that allows researchers to monitor and manipulate AOB neurons during naturalistic peripheral chemosensory stimulation, which is important for relating activity measurements to information content. Furthermore, the proposed experiments will determine how the computations made by these interneurons contribute to the expression of social behaviors. The final proposed experiments will investigate how experience-dependent plasticity in one of the AOB interneuron classes impacts forms of social learning. Overall, the proposed research will produce important insights into the neural mechanisms of sensory processing, social behaviors, and behavioral plasticity.