Optical Stimulation of Visual Areas to Elucidate Cognitive Decision-making Behavior in a Vertebrate Brain
Abstract
This project’s objective is to advance our understanding of how a vertebrate brain processes the visual sensory stimuli to make cognitive decisions. To achieve this objective, we propose to identify the minimally required (i.e., most essential) neurons in the larval zebrafish brain and their electrical membrane voltage dynamics that enable correct cognitive decision-making. The identification will inform the most critical neural circuits and their information representation that causally contribute to cognition in vivo, promoting the decoding of complex brain-wide principles underpinning the sensorimotor transformation. To identify the minimally required neurons and their electrical codes, this research will create, integrate, and apply several new methodologies. First, this research will establish and apply genetic and optical strategies to achieve V m mapping in vivo at single-neuron-and-single-spike resolution during a decision-making behavior. Second, using spectrally distinct optogenetics actuators in one-photon (1P) microscopy, this research achieves active modulation to evaluate the causal roles of neurons in the generation of behavior. Third, in combination with unsupervised-machine-learning-based clustering and adaptive-inverse-controller (AIC), this research automatically utilizes the V m data (particularly action potentials, “spikes�) to identify the causal links between minimum neural circuits and behavior in vivo. Fourth, this research connects the V m dynamics of the activated neurons with their biological properties, such as morphology, position, connectivity, and inhibitory-excitatory attributes, increasing our understanding of the neuronal implementation of decision-making and the function-structure-behavior interplay. Overall, this project bridges the current technology gap and provides answers to the critical knowledge gaps in understanding the cognitive behavior.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Mar 06, 2024
- Source ID
- FA95502310393
Entities
People
- Xin Tang
Organizations
- Air Force Office of Scientific Research
- United States Air Force
- University of Florida