Equipment for imaging functional domains in the cerebral cortex

作为人类，我们理所当然地拥有对外界形成准确感官感知的能力，或者学习日常可能需要的感官运动任务的新方面。例如，一个新的医学生将使用他们的触觉来学习如何评估病人的脉搏，呼吸质量或执行一个新的手术，涉及微妙的操纵。为了使我们能够进行这些活动，我们大脑中的神经元回路必须通过调整现有连接之间的通信强度或完全形成新的连接来改变。尽管在理解我们的大脑如何变化方面已经取得了相当大的进展，但迄今为止进行的大部分工作都是在死后组织中完成的，或者使用无法实时跟踪我们大脑异常快速反应的成像技术。因此，很少有人知道触觉刺激或学习如何在完整的大脑皮层中引起快速的结构和功能变化。我的研究的主要目的是使用新的成像技术（我已经申请了资金），这将使我能够在活体动物中可视化，大脑皮层如何在长时间刺激后积极处理触觉信息，或者同时学习新的触觉关联。此外，我将剖析引发大脑皮层回路快速变化的神经化学和分子机制。进行这些实验将提供有关神经生物学机制的关键信息，介导快速形式的感觉学习，习惯化和敏化。此外，知道如何用相对无害的触觉刺激来调节或启动皮层回路，可能有助于治疗与异常皮层反应相关的神经病理学疾病（例如，幻肢感觉、纤维肌痛、精神分裂症）或损伤诱导的皮层回路中断后的功能恢复。

As humans, we take for granted our abilities to form an accurate sensory perception of the outside world or learn new facets of a sensory-motor task that may be required on a day-to-day basis. For example, a new medical student will use their sense of touch to learn how to assess a patients' pulse, quality of breathing or perform a new surgery that involves delicate maneuvering. In order for us to carry out these activities, the neuronal circuits within our brain must change by adjusting the strength of communication between existing connections or by forming new ones altogether. Although considerable progress has been made towards understanding how our brain changes, much of the work conducted thus far has been done in post-mortem tissue or using imaging techniques that cannot track the exceptionally fast responses of our brain in real-time. Consequently, very little is known about how tactile stimulation or learning can induce rapid structural and functional changes in the cerebral cortex of the intact, living brain. The primary aims of my research will be to use new imaging technologies (that I have requested funding for) that will allow me to visualize in the living animal, how the cerebral cortex actively processes tactile information after prolonged stimulation or whilst learning new tactile associations. Further, I will dissect the neurochemical and molecular mechanisms that trigger rapid changes in cerebral cortical circuitry. Performing these experiments will provide critical information regarding the neurobiological mechanisms that mediate rapid forms of sensory learning, habituation and sensitization. Furthermore, knowing how to tune or prime cortical circuits with a relatively innocuous form of tactile stimulation may facilitate the treatment of neuropathological conditions associated with aberrant cortical responsiveness (eg. phantom limb sensations, fibromyalgia, schizophrenia) or the recovery of functions after injury-induced disruptions to cortical circuits.