Grant: Project Grant

Vestibular disorders such as labyrinthitis and vestibular neuritis, which lead to the defects of many fundamental innate motor functions, have considerable impact on Canadian society. It has been estimated that ~5% of all Canadians (1.9 million) suffer from chronic vestibular disorders (CBC news). And this number increases to up to 35% among the population of 40 years or older. Nevertheless, our brains have great potential of plasticity which can partially recover innate motor functions affected by vestibular disorders. A determination of the basic cellular and circuitry mechanisms underlying innate behavior plasticity will enhance our understanding of the partial recovery of innate behaviors compromised by vestibular disorders. Our lab has developed a surgery paradigm to reliably induce innate behavior plasticity, allowing us to perform a variety of in vivo and in vitro approaches for circuit analysis. In this project, we will utilize two-photon functional imaging and single unit recording from behaving mice combined with viral circuit tracing. Our goals are to pinpoint circuit components essential for innate behavior plasticity and to elucidate the principles governing this type of behavioral adaptation. By deciphering the basic mechanisms of innate behavior plasticity, our work will have great potential to figure out the bottleneck of intrinsic innate behavior plasticity, and thus provide insight into new avenues for novel therapies to promote the recovery of fundamental innate functions affected by vestibular disorders.