Description du projet
Explorer la zona incerta pour appréhender les changements d’état internes
La survie dépend de la capacité à adapter rapidement les comportements à l’évolution des besoins et de l’environnement. La zona incerta, une région du cerveau, sert de pôle central qui régule les fonctions essentielles telles que la défense et l’alimentation tout en gérant les états internes. Elle permet de calculer les changements de comportement et de les communiquer afin de déclencher une action. Le projet CERTASTATES, financé par le CER, fera appel à des technologies de pointe, notamment des techniques moléculaires, l’imagerie in vivo de souris et des évaluations comportementales, pour étudier la manière dont des types et circuits cellulaires spécifiques traitent les changements d’états internes, influencent la flexibilité comportementale et peuvent être modulés par la stimulation cérébrale profonde. Concentrant ses recherches sur la zona incerta, le projet entend améliorer notre compréhension de la manière dont les circuits neuronaux génèrent et utilisent des états internes pour guider le comportement adaptatif.
Objectif
Survival requires accurate and rapid implementation of adaptive behavior. In a world where our physiological needs and surrounding environment are ever changing, one wrong move could make the difference between life and death. How does the brain successfully compute changes in internal state and external cues, while factoring in experience, to drive the most appropriate behavioral outcome from moment-to-moment? Mounting evidence suggests that the zona incerta, a little studied region, is a central switchboard for such adaptive behavior. This subthalamic nucleus has widespread connections and was recently found to regulate an astounding range of behaviors critical for survival including defense, sleep, feeding and much more. It also encodes associated changes in internal states, such as anxiety, fatigue and hunger, and integrates sensory inputs across modalities. These features suggest that a central function of the zona incerta might be to locally compute needed transitions in behavior based on internal state changes, which are then broadcast to downstream targets to convert this into action. To address this hypothesis, CERTASTATES will employ cutting-edge molecular, circuit tracing, recording and in vivo imaging technologies in mice together with diverse behavioral paradigms and rich behavioral state readouts. The ultimate objective is to uncover how distinct internal state changes: (i) are processed in defined cell types and circuits, (ii) drive behavioral flexibility and (iii) are influenced by deep brain stimulation, motivated by the fact that the zona incerta is one of few established targets in humans for this therapeutic approach. Together, this work will advance our understanding of how neural circuits generate internal states, and in turn process, broadcast and use this information to guide adaptive behavior. Moreover, it will open an entry point for translation by exploring how clinically-applied neuromodulation can transform these vital computations.
Programme(s)
- HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC) Main Programme
Thème(s)
Appel à propositions
(s’ouvre dans une nouvelle fenêtre) ERC-2024-STG
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HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC GrantsInstitution d’accueil
80539 MUNCHEN
Allemagne