The experiments proposed here will be carried out as part of a general investigation into the neural mechanisms underlying ethanol's disruptive effect on higher-order sensory functions. In particular, selective processing of sensory information in the presence of distraction is known to be a parameter of human performance which is markedly disturbed during intoxication. The PI has developed and utilized a relatively simple neurophysiological system for studying selective sensory processing in the cerebral cortex and is currently using this model in assessments of the effects of acute ethanol intoxication. This model involves recording single units in the primary somatosensory (SI) cortex of rats. Computer techniques are used to measure two types of behavior related sensory modulation: 1) sensory facilitation in """"""""immobile arousal"""""""" behaviors, and 2) inhibitory gating of cutaneous sensory transmission from the forepaw to these cells during, and in correlation with, limb movements. These inhibitory controls only allow this sensory information to reach certain cortical cells during precise phases of the step cycle. Ethanol, among its other effects, appears to reduce or abolish the sensory facilitations seen in arousal, and also the inhibitory controls seen in movement. These occur in a dose-dependent fashion. Thus, even low ethanol doses appear to severely compromise the brain's control of its own sensory input. The experiments proposed here will: 1) investigate these findings in the SI cortex more thoroughly, 2) utilize the """"""""Preferring"""""""" and """"""""Non-preferring"""""""" rat strains (of Li, Lumeng, et al.) in similar experiments, 3) investigate the possibility that ethanol's reduction of inhibitory gating controls may result from disruption of activity in the adjacent motor cortex (one possible source of the gating bias signal), and 4) develop an operantly controlled behavioral paradigm for """"""""passive"""""""" selective attention in which a sensory stimulus is made """"""""significant"""""""" by pairing it with a reward.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
1R01AA006965-01
Application #
3110430
Study Section
Alcohol Biomedical Research Review Committee (ALCB)
Project Start
1986-04-01
Project End
1987-03-31
Budget Start
1986-04-01
Budget End
1987-03-31
Support Year
1
Fiscal Year
1986
Total Cost
Indirect Cost
Name
University of Texas Sw Medical Center Dallas
Department
Type
Overall Medical
DUNS #
City
Dallas
State
TX
Country
United States
Zip Code
75390
Nicolelis, M A; Chapin, J K (1994) Spatiotemporal structure of somatosensory responses of many-neuron ensembles in the rat ventral posterior medial nucleus of the thalamus. J Neurosci 14:3511-32
Shin, H C; Park, H J; Chapin, J K (1994) Differential phasic modulation of short and long latency afferent sensory transmission to single neurons in the primary somatosensory cortex in behaving rats. Neurosci Res 19:419-25
Kosobud, A E; Harris, G C; Chapin, J K (1994) Behavioral associations of neuronal activity in the ventral tegmental area of the rat. J Neurosci 14:7117-29
Nicolelis, M A; Lin, R C; Woodward, D J et al. (1993) Dynamic and distributed properties of many-neuron ensembles in the ventral posterior medial thalamus of awake rats. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 90:2212-6
Shin, H C; Park, H J; Chapin, J K (1993) Differential phasic modulation of short and long latency afferent sensory transmission to single neurons in the ventroposterolateral thalamus in behaving rats. Neurosci Res 17:117-25
Nicolelis, M A; Chapin, J K; Lin, R C (1991) Neonatal whisker removal in rats stabilizes a transient projection from the auditory thalamus to the primary somatosensory cortex. Brain Res 567:133-9
Nicolelis, M A; Chapin, J K; Lin, C S (1991) Ontogeny of corticocortical projections of the rat somatosensory cortex. Somatosens Mot Res 8:193-200
Patel, I M; Chapin, J K (1990) Ketamine effects on somatosensory cortical single neurons and on behavior in rats. Anesth Analg 70:635-44
Shin, H C; Chapin, J K (1990) Movement induced modulation of afferent transmission to single neurons in the ventroposterior thalamus and somatosensory cortex in rat. Exp Brain Res 81:515-22
Lin, C S; Nicolelis, M A; Schneider, J S et al. (1990) A major direct GABAergic pathway from zona incerta to neocortex. Science 248:1553-6

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