SPP1665

Bringing Light into the Brain

DFG supports new Priority Program with 8 Million Euro

Resolving and manipulating neuronal networks in the mammalian brain: from correlative to causal analysis

RUB Neuroscientists will develop combined optogenetic and imaging approaches

The common aim of the newly established DFG Priority Program is to investigate interactions between nerve cells and thier impact on network activities across the brain. Central questions focus on the relationship between the complex processing within the brain and behavior.

Contributing scientists from the RUB are the work groups of Prof. Dr. Stefan Herlitze (Lehrstuhl für Allgemeine Zoologie und Neurobiologie) and PD Dr. Dirk Jancke (Optical Imaging Group, Institut für Neuroinformatik). In our project we plan to specifically target Serotonin, a neurotransmitter that influences emotions and memory function within the brain in manifold ways. Dysfunction in the regulation of Serotonin levels plays an important role in the pathogenesis of neurophysiological disorders like migraine and depression.

In total, 12 collaborative groups, distributed across German Universities and Max-Planck Institutes, have been awarded. One aspect common to all groups is to specifically target brain activity and to understand the resulting neuronal network dynamics.

In the new priority program (SPP 1665), the groups were established in the form of so-called “Troika” collaborations. In these, the members develop new tools to manipulate brain activity, to engineer new methods for monitoring, and to generalize the data within mathematical modeling frameworks.

Together with our partners of the University of Osnabrück, we aim at investigating the role of interactions between different brain regions and their impact on motor action planning and learning. Specifically, we address the question how Serotonin modulates sensory and motor processing. Sensation and motor action is influenced through emotional factors like motivation, anger, fear, or attention. There is not much knowledge of how modulation of these factors by serotonergic action affects quantities of sensory-motor integration as anticipation, adaptation, and learning. In our project, serotonergic brain cells will selectively be activated or inhibited using optogenetics. Additionally, voltage-sensitive dye imaging (VSDI) will be used to record neuronal activity across several square millimeters of the brain with high spatial and temporal resolutions. Thus, with the combined application of these techniques we are enabled to selectively activate particular neuronal receptor types and specific network elements (e.g. layerspecific, excitatory, inhibitory), and on the other hand, we measure their impact on the entire network in real time.

In cooperation with Prof. Dr. Peter König, Universität Osnabrück, the obtained results shall guide the development of new theoretical models that describe serotonergic modulation of brain activity in mathematical terms. These findings, this is our hope, will also have further practical implications for the treatment of Serotonin-dependent neurophysiological disorders.

Contact:

PD Dr. Dirk Jancke

Optical Imaging Group

Institut für Neuroinformatik

Ruhr-Universität Bochum

D-44780 Bochum

Tel: +49 234 32 27845

Email: dirk.jancke@rub.de

Web: http://homepage.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/Dirk.Jancke/

Prof. Dr. Stefan Herlitze

Allg. Zoologie und Neurobiologie

Ruhr-Universität Bochum