Project description
The role of the thalamus in neuroplasticity
Early neuroplasticity refers to the brain's ability to undergo structural and functional changes and adapt its neural connections in response to experiences, learning, and environmental influences. Early stages of development are critical periods as the brain is particularly sensitive to stimuli and forms neural circuits that lay the foundation for future cognitive, sensory, and motor abilities. Funded by the European Research Council, the SENSORTHALAMUS project will exploit prenatal sensory deprivation as a model to investigate the mechanisms underlying early neuroplasticity. The key objective is to decipher the role of the thalamus in the functional modulation of cortical areas and in sensory perception.
Objective
The cerebral cortex is organized into highly specialized sensory areas. Thus, it is fundamental to understand how these areas acquire and maintain their identity and functional organization. Challenging normal brain development and forcing the brain to the limits of plasticity, offers us the possibility to shed light on these issues. Accordingly, we shall use prenatal sensory deprivation as a model to understand the mechanisms underlying early neuroplasticity, events that could influence the natural organization of sensory cortical areas. Early sensory deprivation produces profound changes in the cortex, provoking the reorganization of both the deprived and the spared cortical territories. Classically, this adaptation is thought to require sensory experience from the intact sensory modalities. However, our recent data from embryonic deprived mice challenge this view, suggesting that a component independent of experience contributes to this reorganization and that the thalamus plays a pivotal role in these events. Hence, we now propose to adopt multidisciplinary and innovative approaches to characterize the structural, genetic and functional rearrangements in the thalamus following embryonic sensory deprivation, and to define the factors and mechanisms that drive cortical specificity. Experimental results from sensory deprived animals in which the thalamus and gene expression is manipulated in vivo, will be integrated to explain when and how neuroplastic cortical adaptations are triggered in the deprived brain. To further understand the rewiring capacity of thalamic neurons and their potential role in sensory restoration, we will adopt a high-risk, high-gain approach to reprogramme nuclei specific thalamic neurons. The novel information obtained will establish how sensory inputs and thalamocortical connections govern cortical activity and architecture, ultimately sculpting perceptual behaviour.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
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CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- natural sciences biological sciences neurobiology
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- medical and health sciences clinical medicine embryology
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Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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H2020-EU.1.1. - EXCELLENT SCIENCE - European Research Council (ERC)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
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Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
ERC-COG - Consolidator Grant
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Call for proposal
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Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2014-CoG
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28006 MADRID
Spain
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