Description
- Abstract:
- Information processing in the brain serves to meet body needs—to adapt behavior to best create the behaviors that will address the needs of the system. Dopaminergic (DA) neurons particularly play a vital role in processing information relevant to determining what will be rewarding in a given context, the reward and motivation underlying behavior. These neurons receive many inputs, the most important excitatory ones include glutamatergic and cholinergic signals. However, these may not be the only valuable inputs to DA neurons for reward processing. DA axons are closely opposed to blood vessels. While the coupling of hemodynamics and neuronal activity as measured by the functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) BOLD signal has been largely associated with serving a metabolic need, the Hemo-Neural hypothesis (Moore 2008) suggests that hemodynamics can directly influence neural activity. Glutamatergic and cholinergic inputs are largely represented by current neuronal models, however the role of hemodynamics in information processing of dopaminergic neurons is novel. This paper proposes that Transient Receptor Potential Canonical 1 (TRPC1), through its role as a mechanosensitive, direct cation, and store- operated channel, is well-positioned to integrate both hemodynamic and glutamatergic signals in dopaminergic axons to facilitate DA release through alterations of intracellular calcium. This novel view of information processing in dopaminergic neurons, that includes hemo-neural interactions as a significant part in the computation that facilitates dopamine release, has implications in understanding the nature of reward processing in dopaminergic neurons and the construction of accurate biophysical models to represent this process.
- Notes:
- Senior thesis (ScB)--Brown University, 2020
- Concentration: Independent Concentration: Computational Neuroscience
Access Conditions
- Rights
- In Copyright
- Restrictions on Use
- All rights reserved. Collection is open for research.
Citation
Rana, Chahat,
"Computation beyond Neurons: A mechanistic proposal for the integration of vascular to neural signaling in dopaminergic axons"
(2020).
Independent Concentrations Theses and Dissertations.
Brown Digital Repository. Brown University Library.
https://doi.org/10.26300/jxeh-h807
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Independent Concentrations Theses and Dissertations
Theses and Dissertations for the Independent Concentrations department....