PLASTICITY OF CORTICAL CIRCUITS IN HEALTH, AGING, AND ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE - PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT COMPRI…
Federal financial assistance recorded from USAspending. This is not a procurement contract.
Assistance award details
- Assistance award identifier
- ASST_NON_K00AG073558_075
- FAIN
- K00AG073558
- Recipient
- MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
- Awarding agency
- Department of Health and Human Services
- Funding agency
- Department of Health and Human Services
- Assistance listing (CFDA)
- 93.866
- Total obligated
- $242,422
- Period
- Sep 15, 2021 – May 31, 2028
- Fiscal year
- 2024
- Place of performance state
- MA
- Source file
- FY2024_All_Assistance_Full_20261006.zip
Description
PLASTICITY OF CORTICAL CIRCUITS IN HEALTH, AGING, AND ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE - PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT COMPRISED OF SIX DISTINCT LAYERS, THE CEREBRAL CORTEX IS THE KEY BRAIN STRUCTURE FOR ALL OF OUR COGNITIVE ABILITIES, RANGING FROM SENSATION TO DECISION MAKING TO MOVEMENT. EACH LAYER CONTAINS DISTINCT CELL TYPES DIFFERING IN THEIR GENES, BIOPHYSICAL PROPERTIES, AND CONNECTIVITY WITH OTHER PARTS OF THE NERVOUS SYSTEM. YET HOW THESE DIVERSE CORTICAL LAYERS AND CELL TYPES ARE INVOLVED IN ANY GIVEN BEHAVIOR REMAINS UNRESOLVED. MOREOVER, WE CURRENTLY LACK INSIGHT INTO HOW AGING IMPACTS INTERACTIONS BETWEEN CORTICAL LAYERS, WHICH SEVERELY LIMITS OUR UNDERSTANDING OF HOW AGING ALTERS CORTICAL CIRCUIT FUNCTION. AT THE MOST BASIC LEVEL, THE CORTEX CAN BE DIVIDED INTO DEEP AND SUPERFICIAL LAYERS, EACH OF WHICH RECEIVES A COMPLETE COPY OF SENSORY INFORMATION FROM THE THALAMUS. THIS SUGGESTS THAT THE TWO SETS OF LAYERS CONSTITUTE DIFFERENT PROCESSING SYSTEMS, WHICH BEGS THE QUESTION: WHAT ARE THE POSSIBLE PURPOSES OF THESE PARALLEL NETWORKS? BECAUSE THESE PROCESSING STREAMS DIFFER IN INPUT, OUTPUT, INTRINSIC MEMBRANE, SYNAPTIC INTEGRATION, AND SPIKE GENERATION PROPERTIES, I HYPOTHESIZE THAT DEEP AND SUPERFICIAL LAYERS HAVE UNIQUE, INDEPENDENT FUNCTIONS. THIS ALSO RAISES THE INTRIGUING POSSIBILITY THAT THESE PATHWAYS ARE DIFFERENTIALLY SUSCEPTIBLE TO AGING. I HYPOTHESIZE THAT AGING LEADS TO LAYER-SPECIFIC CHANGES THAT ULTIMATELY LEAD TO UNIQUE AGE-RELATED DEFICITS IN CORTICAL CIRCUIT FUNCTION. INVESTIGATING THE FUNCTIONS AND AGE-RELATED CHANGES IN DEEP AND SUPERFICIAL CORTICAL NETWORKS REQUIRES A CORTEX-DEPENDENT TASK. IN DR. BRUNOâS LAB AT COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY (F99), I DEVELOPED A WHISKER-MEDIATED TEXTURE DISCRIMINATION TASK FOR HEAD-FIXED MICE, DEMONSTRATED THAT THIS BEHAVIOR REQUIRES THE CORTEX, AND REVEALED THAT BOTH DEEP AND SUPERFICIAL LAYERS ARE INVOLVED IN PROCESSING TEXTURE INFORMATION (AIM 1.0, PROGRESS REPORT). I PROPOSE TO CHARACTERIZE THE SENSORIMOTOR STRATEGIES R