| Grant number: | 12/21786-0 |
| Support Opportunities: | Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate (Direct) |
| Effective date (Start): | March 01, 2013 |
| Effective date (End): | September 03, 2016 |
| Field of knowledge: | Biological Sciences - Biochemistry - Molecular Biology |
| Principal Investigator: | Fabio Papes |
| Grantee: | Vinicius Miessler de Andrade Carvalho |
| Host Institution: | Instituto de Biologia (IB). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil |
| Associated research grant: | 09/00473-0 - Molecular biology of the olfactory system in mammals: study on the detection of odors and their neural representation in the brain, AP.JP |
| Associated scholarship(s): | 14/25594-3 - Optogenetic manipulation of olfactory circuits, BE.EP.DD |
Abstract In most animals, the detection of chemical stimuli by the olfactory system and the subsequent activation of the associated neural networks may lead to behavioral outputs that are relevant to the survival of the individual and even the species, such as suckling in newborns, aggression, mating and fear. However, the neural mechanisms that underlie the modulation of olfactory dependent behaviors, especially those elicited by the vomeronasal organ (VNO) remain largely unknown. Little is known, for instance, about the expression profile of the vomeronasal receptors (VRs) in the vomeronasal sensory neurons (VSNs), about the interactions of VRs and their ligands and about how the brain interprets the information detected in the VNO. In this project, we intend to explore this last issue: how the detection of chemical stimuli leads to the generation of neural maps which represent internally the sensory information that occur in the external environment. Our main hypothesis, based on preliminary data, is that a specific group of nuclei in the limbic system represents the odors and pheromones detected by the VNO, where the activation of different receptors in the VSNs leads to distinct patterns of activation in these nuclei. Through the combination of histological and molecular approaches, we intend to describe and investigate these neural maps, and objectively test the hypothesis presented above. To better understand how stimuli detected in the VNO are represented in the brain, we will perform imunohistochemestry (IHC) against the neuronal activation marker c-Fos, in the brain of mice exposed to different types of stimuli. Finally, we intend to unravel the possible biological meaning of these brain maps, analyzing regions that receive projections from the nuclei activated after the detection of stimuli by the VNO, and by performing behavioral assays. The understanding of how chemical cues are represented and interpreted by the brain may prove important in understanding how the olfactory dependent behaviors are generated, including in humans. (AU) | |
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