光遗传学技术应用于研究上丘相关皮层下神经环路对本能防御行为的调控

项目名称： 光遗传学技术应用于研究上丘相关皮层下神经环路对本能防御行为的调控

项目编号： No.31500861

项目类型： 青年科学基金项目

立项/批准年度： 2016

项目学科： 神经、认识与心理学

项目作者： 蔚鹏飞

作者单位： 中国科学院深圳先进技术研究院

项目金额： 20万元

中文摘要： 研究目标：解析上丘内部细胞特异性神经环路处理威胁刺激信息、进而快速启动本能防御行为的机制。研究方法：本项目以小鼠为研究对象，整合光遗传学神经环路调控、清醒动物在体多通道电生理记录、行为学与多生理参数检测技术，重点关注的核团是位于中脑的皮层下早期感知觉整合中枢，上丘（superior colliculus，SC）。研究内容：1）鉴定SC不同亚区中神经元细胞类型的分布特征；2）应用光遗传学技术激活/抑制SC各类神经元，精确定量的剥离和研究其对本能防御行为的编码特征和规律；3）初步探讨SC下行投射通路对本能防御行为各种组分的调控。研究意义：旨在重新理解SC在大脑恐惧/厌恶等负性情绪编码网络中可能起到的早期感知觉整合，以及快速启动防御行为应答功能的重要作用，从而进一步为理解精神疾病中恐惧情感处理异常的神经环路机制提供重要线索和研究依据。

中文关键词： 上丘；本能防御行为；恐惧；神经环路；光遗传学

英文摘要： The innate defensive reactions is the basic survival function to respond to external life-threatening stimuli, this defensive responses can feedback to the central emotional processing system that generate negative emotions such as fear or aversion. Thus dissection of the brain circuits of innate defensive reactions will provide potential insights for understanding the abnormal fear responses or emotional states in mental diseases. Here we focus on how the innate defensive reactions mediating by the superior colliculus (SC), a subcortical midbrain structure which is generally considered as the key early sensorimotor center. By utilizing a combination of optogenetics manipulation, in vivo multi-site electrophysiological recording and behavioral recording and physiological parameters monitoring techniques, we will dissect and investigate the cell-types specific neuronal circuits of the SC for different classes or components of innate defensive reactions, to understanding how the different sub-population SC neurons receiving biological salient inputs and initiating or regulating the defensive responses. This proposes aims to re-evaluate the important role of the SC in subcortical emotional processing system, which would shed some new lights in regarding the dysfunctional mechanisms of early sensorimotor integration that underlie the abnormal fear emotion processing in mental disorders.

英文关键词： superior colliculus;innate defensive reactions;fear;neural circuits;optogenetics