The University of Oregon (UO) was awarded a $1,757,591 Project Grant from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) under the 21st Century Cures Act - Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) Initiative program (CFDA 93.372). The funding will support research to determine how TAC1-expressing neurons in the lateral habenula encode reward prediction errors and impact behavioral flexibility. Specific aims include using population-level and single-unit recordings to characterize how TAC1 neurons respond to different reward parameters, elucidating the circuit- and synaptic-level mechanisms driving changes in TAC1 neuron activity, and manipulating TAC1 neuron activity to assess its role in reversal learning. Completion of this 3-year project will establish a cell-type resolved understanding of error-encoding neurons and their function in behavioral flexibility, which could inform new therapeutic targets for neuropsychiatric disorders.
Generated 8/13/24, 8:15 AM