Description du projet
Interactions de sous-populations de neurones corticaux dans le processus de codage des informations
Les comportements pertinents résultent de l’intégration et du traitement des informations sensorielles par le cerveau en réponse à certains éléments visuels. Cette mise au point est due aux connexions structurées entre les neurones corticaux représentés par de nombreuses sous-populations neuronales impliquées dans différentes fonctions. Les études sur cette diversité neuronale dans le calcul cortical ont largement écarté les bonnes sous-populations. Le projet SUBNETVIS, financé par l’UE, recourra à la transcriptomique innovante in situ pour étudier les propriétés de mise au point et la modulation locomotrice des sous-populations neuronales dans le cortex visuel primaire de la souris. Cette technique favorisera l’identification à haut débit des sous-populations neuronales sur le tissu fixé, basée sur la signature transcriptomique des neurones. Le projet permettra de comprendre comment les sous-populations de neurones corticaux interagissent pour coder les informations sensorielles.
Objectif
To produce relevant behaviors, the brain integrates and processes sensory information. Neurons in the primary visual cortex extract sensory information by responding preferentially to certain visual features. This feature preference, or tuning, is thought to arise from structured connections established between cortical neurons. Accordingly, it was found that connected neurons in the cerebral cortex share similar tuning properties. Interestingly, the neurons populating the cerebral cortex correspond to numerous neuronal subpopulations, involved in different functions. However, the functional involvement of this large neuronal diversity in cortical computation has been so far studied for a few broad neuronal subpopulations, leaving the fine subpopulations mainly unexplored. Do these poorly studied neuronal subpopulations share similar tuning properties? Is the structured connectivity giving rise to tuning subpopulation specific? I will use a new technique referred as in situ transcriptomics to study the tuning properties and locomotor modulation of the diverse neuronal subpopulations in the mouse primary visual cortex. This technique provides high throughput identification of neuronal subpopulations on fixed tissue based on the transcriptomic signature of neurons. I will thus determine the identity of in vivo recorded neurons a posteriori and decipher the relationships between cell identity and responses to visual stimuli. Combining this approach with single cell initiated monosynaptic tracing, I will then explore the link between subpopulation specific connectivity and tuning properties. This project will greatly contribute to the understanding of how cortical neuronal subpopulations interact to encode sensory information. I will perform these experiments in the Cortical Processing Laboratory at University College London, led by Professors Kenneth Harris and Matteo Carandini.
Champ scientifique
Programme(s)
Régime de financement
MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF)Coordinateur
WC1E 6BT London
Royaume-Uni