The Neural Organization of Taste Neophobia

味觉恐惧症的神经组织

基本信息

批准号：
10504415
负责人：
John D Boughter
金额：
$ 38.5万
依托单位：
UNIVERSITY OF TENNESSEE HEALTH SCI CTR
依托单位国家：
美国
项目类别：
财政年份：
2022
资助国家：
美国
起止时间：
2022-08-02 至 2027-07-31
项目状态：
未结题

来源：
https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10504415
关键词：
Acetylcholine Acute Adverse effects Agreement Animals Anorexia Area Basal Nucleus of Meynert Behavior Behavioral Brain region Calcium Cells Child Child Health Childhood Consumption Coronary Arteriosclerosis Data Desire for food Diabetes Mellitus Disease Dissection Eating Disorders Ensure Exposure to Failure Familiarity Feeding behaviors Food Goals Head Health Human Hypertension Image Immediate-Early Genes Intake Knowledge Learning Lesion Life Measures Mediating Memory Mus Neurons Neurotransmitters Obesity Outcome Pathway interactions Pharmacology Study Phase Play Population Primary Lesion Process Prosencephalon Reaction Research Rodent Role Sensory Signal Transduction Stimulus Taste Perception Techniques Testing Thalamic structure Time Toxic effect adverse outcome attenuation awake basal forebrain cell type cholinergic cholinergic neuron dietary experience experimental study microendoscope neural circuit neural correlate neuromechanism neuronal circuitry novel novelty processing relating to nervous system response taste stimuli transmission process

项目摘要

Project Summary Neophobia is defined as a fearful reaction to novel stimuli or situations. When an animal encounters a novel food, they approach and consume it with cautiousness. For humans, this behavior has significant health consequences. Food Neophobia is especially prevalent in children, and the rejection of certain types of foods has serious consequences for the acute health of the child. Moreover, food Neophobia in childhood has long- lasting adverse effects on dietary choices associated with eating disorders, poor health outcomes, and disease. In rodents, taste Neophobia is an important behavioral reaction that ensures a minimized threat of toxicity in unfamiliar foods, including those that are inherently appetitive. When faced with a novel food or taste, animals consume a relatively small amount during the initial encounter. If this consumption yields no adverse consequences, a memory for a “safe” taste is formed, and animals will more readily increase their intake in subsequent test sessions, a process is known as attenuation of Neophobia. While lesions studies have begun to identify the brain regions involved in taste Neophobia and its attenuation, relatively little is known about the underlying circuits or the neural correlates of these behaviors. For example, there have been no attempts at exploring how Neophobia and attenuation impact neuronal responses in awake, behaving animals in key areas of the central taste pathway, including the gustatory cortex, gustatory thalamus, and nucleus basalis. The overall goal of this project is to understand this process by investigating how information regarding the novelty and familiarity of tastes are encoded within these circuits. Our central hypothesis is that Neophobia is driven by enhanced responses in both gustatory cortex and thalamus, and its attenuation is mediated by cholinergic activity from basal forebrain inputs. We will use calcium imaging of defined cholinergic and gustatory cell types combined with chemogenetic manipulation in awake animals during Neophobia and attenuation to test these hypotheses. The findings of these experiments will be significant in that they will be the first to explore neuronal activity in central taste regions during Neophobia and attenuation. Further, our findings will fundamentally advance our knowledge of how taste Neophobia is encoded in central taste circuits and the role of cholinergic input in this behavior. These findings will be important not only in increasing our understanding of this important form of taste learning but also in furthering our understanding of the basic mechanisms underlying novelty processing within sensory regions.

项目概要新恐惧症被定义为当动物遇到新事物时对新刺激或情况的恐惧反应。对于人类来说，这种行为具有重要的健康意义。后果食物恐惧症在儿童中尤其普遍，并且拒绝某些类型的食物。此外，儿童时期的食物恐惧症长期以来一直对儿童的健康造成严重后果。对与饮食失调、健康状况不佳和疾病相关的饮食选择产生持久的不利影响。对于啮齿类动物来说，味觉恐惧症是一种重要的行为反应，可确保将毒性威胁降至最低。不熟悉的食物，包括那些本来就有食欲的食物当动物面对新的食物或味道时。如果这种消耗不会产生不利影响，则在初次遭遇时消耗相对少量。结果，形成了对“安全”味道的记忆，动物会更容易增加其摄入量随后的测试过程中，一个被称为“新恐惧症减弱”的过程已经开始，而研究损伤已经开始。为了确定与味觉恐惧症及其减弱有关的大脑区域，人们对味觉恐惧症及其减弱的了解相对较少。例如，尚未尝试研究这些行为的潜在回路或神经关联。探索恐新症和衰减如何影响清醒、行为动物关键区域的神经反应中枢味觉通路，包括味觉皮层、味觉丘脑和基底核。该项目的目标是通过调查有关新颖性和实用性的信息如何了解这一过程我们的中心假设是，新恐惧症是由这些回路所驱动的。味觉皮层和丘脑的反应增强，其减弱是由胆碱能活性介导的我们将结合使用确定的胆碱能和味觉细胞类型的钙成像。在新恐惧症和衰减期间对清醒的动物进行化学遗传学操作来测试这些假设。这些实验的结果意义重大，因为它们将是第一个探索神经活动的实验此外，我们的发现将从根本上推进我们的研究。了解味觉恐惧症如何在中枢味觉回路中编码以及胆碱能输入在此过程中的作用这些发现不仅对于增进我们对这种重要的味觉形式的理解很重要。学习还可以进一步加深我们对新事物处理的基本机制的理解感觉区域。