1985 — 2012 |
Swanson, Larry W |
P41Activity Code Description: Undocumented code - click on the grant title for more information. R01Activity Code Description: To support a discrete, specified, circumscribed project to be performed by the named investigator(s) in an area representing his or her specific interest and competencies. R37Activity Code Description: To provide long-term grant support to investigators whose research competence and productivity are distinctly superior and who are highly likely to continue to perform in an outstanding manner. Investigators may not apply for a MERIT award. Program staff and/or members of the cognizant National Advisory Council/Board will identify candidates for the MERIT award during the course of review of competing research grant applications prepared and submitted in accordance with regular PHS requirements. |
Connections of the Limbic System and Hypothalamus @ University of California Los Angeles
This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. The long-term objective of the proposed work is to identify and characterize at high resolution the structure and chemistry of neural circuits in the mammalian brain that underlie the basic drives and emotions keeping individuals alive and assuring survival of the species associated with hunger and thirst, defensive (fight or flight) behavior, reproductive (sexual and parental) behavior, and the sleep/wake cycle. Previous work identified the hypothalamus as a critical node in this circuitry, and characterized in detail axonal input/output relationships of its medial half with the pituitary gland, cerebral hemispheres, and brainstem/spinal cord. The proposed work is designed to complete in a systematic way, and to extend, a similar analysis of the lateral hypothalamus, and is based on the hypothesis that the lateral hypothalamus consists of two fundamentally different components, a dorsal region with widespread, diffuse projections to much of the central nervous system, and a surrounding compartmentalized region divided into some two dozen parts with very specific projection patterns to specific functional systems. The three specific aims are, a) to complete a phase one, regional analysis of the surrounding compartmentalized region;b) to begin a phase two, neuronal cell type analysis, starting with certain lateral hypothalamic regions apparently involved critically in food appetite regulation;and c) to facilitate the entry of neuroanatomical data into neuroinformatics workbenches on the web. The research is based on the combined use in rats of experimental intra-axonal pathway tracing methods, and hybridization histochemistry for the cell type-specific expression of neurotransmitter-related genes. There is a rich clinical and experimental history, dating back over a century, that disturbances of the hypothalamus, and parts of the brain interacting with the hypothalamus, produce depending on localization either obesity or anorexia, profound effects on cardiovascular and endocrine (for example, blood glucose) measures, anxiety and mood, aggressive behavior, sexual behavior and physiology (for example, the menstrual cycle), and disturbances of normal sleep and wakefulness patterns. The proposed research is designed to clarify very poorly understood neural circuits that mediate normal ingestive, defensive, reproductive, and sleep/wake behaviors;understanding their pathology will follow.
|
1 |
1997 — 2001 |
Swanson, Larry W |
R01Activity Code Description: To support a discrete, specified, circumscribed project to be performed by the named investigator(s) in an area representing his or her specific interest and competencies. |
Connections of the Limbic Systems and Hypothalamus @ University of Southern California
The long term goal of the proposed work is to characterize at high resolution the structure and chemistry of circuits in the mammalian brain that underlie the basic drives that keep individual animals alive and assure perpetuation of the species associated with hunger and thirst, defensive behavior, reproductive behavior, and the sleep/wake cycle. Previous neuroanatomical work has clarified the input/output relationships and neurotransmitters of medial hypothalamic subsystems subserving each of these functions, and shown that they project topographically to the hypothalamic lateral zone (LHZ). Functional evidence suggests that the LHZ plays an important role in positive reinforcement, behavioral arousal, and various aspects of motivated behavior, although the topographic organization of its neural inputs and axonal projections is very poorly understood. The proposed work is based on the hypothesis that the LHZ is differentiated such that particular regions are components of a specific anatomical/functional subsystem, other regions serve to link multiple subsystems, and yet others play a general or nonspecific, modulatory role in motivated behavior. Two specific aims, which are based on the use of experimental neuroanatomical methods in the rat, are designed to explore this hypothesis. (1) A systematic computer graphics may of LHZ differentiation into regions based on in situ hybridization patterns of neurotransmitter-related mRNA expression will be generated. And (2) the basic input/output relationships of these regions vis-a-vis instinctive behavior subsystems as well as other functional systems of the cerebral hemispheres and brainstem will e determined using combined axonal transport/histochemical methods. This analytical/synthetic approach is designed to provide a structural framework for the rational design of functional experiments, as well as provide new insights into, and eventually treatments for, diseases that involve forebrain neural systems controlling eating, drinking, aggression and defense, reproduction, the sleep-wake cycle, and presumably mood disorders as well.
|
1 |
1999 — 2006 |
Swanson, Larry W |
P41Activity Code Description: Undocumented code - click on the grant title for more information. |
Connections of Limbic System &Hypothalamus @ University of California Los Angeles
model design /development
|
0.976 |
2004 — 2012 |
Swanson, Larry W |
P41Activity Code Description: Undocumented code - click on the grant title for more information. R01Activity Code Description: To support a discrete, specified, circumscribed project to be performed by the named investigator(s) in an area representing his or her specific interest and competencies. R56Activity Code Description: To provide limited interim research support based on the merit of a pending R01 application while applicant gathers additional data to revise a new or competing renewal application. This grant will underwrite highly meritorious applications that if given the opportunity to revise their application could meet IC recommended standards and would be missed opportunities if not funded. Interim funded ends when the applicant succeeds in obtaining an R01 or other competing award built on the R56 grant. These awards are not renewable. |
A Mature Brain Architecture Knowledge Management System @ University of Southern California
DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The long-term goal of the proposed research is to create a fully functional online workbench for obtaining information about the biological circuits that make up the brain, and for modeling the functional organization of this circuitry in health and in a broad range of neurological diseases, including Alzheimer's, chronic pain, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's, stroke, and narcolepsy. One strength of this approach in early stages of development is that it complements experimental systems neuroscience research in the lab on the fundamental structural and chemical organization of limbic system circuits that control the basic drives and emotions, along with learning and memory. The foundation of the neuroinformatics research proposed here is a functioning, relatively heavily used website begun in 2001 and called the Brain Architecture Knowledge Management System (Google: BAMS). It is currently the only online system that integrates neuroscience information at four levels of organization: gray matter Regions, neuronal Cell Types making up regions, white matter axonal Connections between regions and cell types, and expressed Molecules. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: All of the major neurological diseases are studied in animal models including rat. The goal of the proposed research is to create a widely used online website for accessing information about the structure and chemistry of brain circuits and systems involved in health and disease, and for modeling the basic wiring diagram of the brain and how it is affected in specific neurological diseases, treated in specific ways.
|
1 |
2004 |
Swanson, Larry W |
P41Activity Code Description: Undocumented code - click on the grant title for more information. |
Functional Atlas of the Mouse Brain @ University of California Los Angeles
brain morphology; biomedical resource; clinical research;
|
0.976 |