About the CRC 870
The last decades brought, on the one hand, major success in molecular and cellular neurosciences and, on the other hand, have provided fascinating data from modern brain imaging techniques like fMRI and EEG. However, our insight into the brain as a functioning and complex system is still rather minimal. For instance, how cellular mechanisms translate into higher brain function is still largely unanswered, despite the fundamental importance of this question. In particular, little is known about how behaviourally relevant information is processed on an intermediate level of brain organisation, that is, by specific neuronal circuits and small and intermediate populations of neurons. However, the development of new experimental and theoretical techniques to study the development, dynamics and function of neuronal circuits is steadily gaining momentum and facilitates new and promising experimental approaches.
The CRC 870 “Assembly and Function of Neuronal Circuits in Sensory Processing” aims at taking the next step and systematically narrowing the gap between microscopic and macroscopic neuroscience. Thus, the main objective of the CRC is to increase our knowledge of the structure-function relationship of neuronal circuits, their development and plasticity, and the way they process behaviourally relevant information.
The various CRC projects will utilize the well described circuits responsible for the different stages of sensory processing. For several reasons, such circuits are ideal model systems to study the principles of neuronal information processing in the brain. First, these circuits process highly specific physical cues present in sensory stimuli. These cues can be tightly controlled in physiological and/or behavioural experiments. Second, sensory circuits show specific structural functional adaptations related to behavioural needs, which help to determine biologically relevant experimental approaches. Third, sensory information is processed often in parallel, anatomically distinguishable pathways that deal with specific aspects of sensory stimuli allowing for efficient testing. Fourth, advanced model-driven hypotheses about sensory processing combined with new experimental techniques facilitate the development of new and more powerful experimental approaches vital for advancing systemic neuroscience. Therefore, several projects in the CRC 870 are dedicated to develop or test new approaches for manipulation neuronal activity in specific subpopulations of neurons within neuronal circuits. These include genetic alterations targeting specific subpopulations as well as the use of optically controlled, photo-switchable molecules that can be used to accentuate the activity of single neurons. Such methods will allow for more efficient and conclusive testing of hypotheses about the flow of information within neuronal circuits.
In and around Munich, a unique combination of labs studying various sensory systems such as the auditory, olfactory, vestibular and visual pathways, and using a variety of conceptual, experimental, and theoretical approaches provide a specific scientific environment for studying the principles of information processing in the central nervous system.
