Movements performed by animals in order to explore external objects are called exploratory movements. The rodent whisker-mediated tactile exploration is a prominent model of exploratory movements. It is known that fast sensory feedback, attention, memory and other factors modulate the patterns of whisker movements in different behavioral contexts. However, the precise neural circuits mechanisms that mediate such task- or context-dependent control of whisker movement patterns remain largely unknown. Through our monosynaptic whisker premotor circuit mapping studies and on-going functional characterizations, we have now identified a group of premotor neurons mediating a sensory feedback reflex, and also discovered the putative premotor whisking oscillator (rhythmogenic) neurons. The goal of this competitive renewal is to determine the in vivo activity patterns of these identified premotor neurons (sensory feedback and the rhythmogenic premotor neurons) in different behavior contexts, mapping their presynaptic inputs (i.e. identifying pre-premotor neurons, or pre2motor neurons) and begin to unveil how key pre2motor neurons convey context-dependent modulation of whisker movements. We will use a combination of viral genetic intersectional labeling strategy, in vivo optetrode-array based recording of photo-identified premotor neurons, modeling, non-toxic viral mediated transsynaptic labeling and manipulation of pre2motor neurons in multiple behavioral tasks to achieve our goal.
! This proposal combines modern viral-genetic labeling and transsynaptic circuit mapping, optogenetic manipulation, and in vivo extracellular recording from identified neurons to reveal neural mechanisms regulating sensory feedback, rhythmogenesis, and context-dependent control of exploratory tactile movements. The results from this proposal are expected to advance our understanding motor control circuits, and eventually help uncover abnormal neural circuits associated with movement disorders, sensorimotor integration deficits, and tactile agnosia, and potentially aid the design and development of better neuroprosthetics for patients with motor dysfunctions.!
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