The Development of Spontaneous Synchronized Activity in Mouse Cerebral Cortex

小鼠大脑皮层自发同步活动的发展

• 批准号: 1121744
• 负责人: William Moody
• 金额: $ 45万
• 依托单位: University of Washington
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2011
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2011-09-01 至 2014-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1121744&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Development; Spontaneous; Synchronized; Activity; Mouse; Development; Spontaneous; Synchronized; Activity; Mouse

The mammalian brain is arguably the most complex organ of any living being, and how its more than 100 billion neurons and several trillion connections among them develop remains largely a mystery. The PIs and other researchers have shown that one of the essential features of brain development is the occurrence of spontaneous waves of electrical activity that propagate across large structures in the brain and which serve to allow developing neurons to communicate with each other. The PI's laboratory uses optical and electrophysiological methods applied to the mouse brain to study how these spontaneous waves are initiated in the brain at the appropriate stages of development. The proposed experiments aim to show that specific populations of pacemaker neurons initiate these waves, and that these pacemaker populations change during early development. This change in pacemaker identity is thought to allow waves of activity to occur over longer periods of development than would be possible with a single pacemaker type. The expected results of these studies are to understand: (1) which neurons serve as pacemakers for spontaneous activity at each stage of development; (2) How the transition between pacemakers occurs; and (3) whether this transition involves a form of learning by the embryonic brain. Disruptions of spontaneous waves of activity in the human brain is likely to be the cause of many clinical abnormalities of brain development, and understanding how activity is initiated should allow us to gain insights into the basic mechanism involved in such ailments. This project will provide outstanding training opportunities for graduate students studying developmental neuroscience.

哺乳动物的大脑可以说是任何生物中最复杂的器官，其超过1000亿个神经元和其中几万亿个联系在很大程度上仍然是一个谜。 PIS和其他研究人员表明，大脑发育的基本特征之一是出现自发性的电活动波，这些波浪在大脑的大型结构中传播，并且可以使发展神经元相互通信。 PI的实验室使用用于小鼠大脑的光学和电生理方法来研究在适当的发育阶段如何在大脑中启动这些自发波。 提出的实验旨在表明，起搏器神经元的特定种群启动这些波浪，并且这些起搏器种群在早期发育过程中发生了变化。 人们认为起搏器身份的这种变化允许在更长的发育期间发生活动波，而不是单个起搏器类型可能发生的。 这些研究的预期结果是要理解：（1）哪些神经元在每个发育阶段都可以作为自发活动的起搏器； （2）起搏器之间的过渡是如何发生的； （3）这种过渡是否涉及胚胎大脑的学习形式。 人脑自发活动波的破坏可能是许多临床发育异常的原因，并且了解如何启动活动应该使我们能够深入了解此类疾病所涉及的基本机制。该项目将为学习发展性神经科学的研究生提供出色的培训机会。