SYNACTAUD

Requirement for hair cell electrical activity in the auditory sensory map formation: Assessment by genetically controlled inhibition of synaptic activity in mice

Coordinatore	INSTITUT PASTEUR    more  Organization address address: RUE DU DOCTEUR ROUX 25-28 city: PARIS CEDEX 15 postcode: 75724 contact info Titolo: Prof. Nome: Christine Cognome: Petit Email: send email Telefono: -145688857 Fax: -45687969
Nazionalità Coordinatore	France [FR]
Totale costo	0 €
EC contributo	228˙759 €
Programma	FP7-PEOPLE Specific programme "People" implementing the Seventh Framework Programme of the European Community for research, technological development and demonstration activities (2007 to 2013)
Code Call	FP7-PEOPLE-IIF-2008
Funding Scheme	MC-IIF
Anno di inizio	2010
Periodo (anno-mese-giorno)	2010-01-19   -   2012-01-18

 Partecipanti

#	participant	country	role	EC contrib. [€]
1	INSTITUT PASTEUR  Organization address address: RUE DU DOCTEUR ROUX 25-28 city: PARIS CEDEX 15 postcode: 75724 contact info Titolo: Prof. Nome: Christine Cognome: Petit Email: send email Telefono: -145688857 Fax: -45687969	FR (PARIS CEDEX 15)	coordinator	228˙759.19

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 Obiettivo del progetto (Objective)

'Humans are able to discriminate sounds with frequencies that are separated by no more than 0.1%. This level of performance arises from the exceptional sensory capacities of our cochlea, which detects stimuli through an array of sensory hair cells, spatially organized to follow a gradient of preferred frequency (a tonotopic map). This map is conserved downstream of the cochlea, implying that cochlear neurons must connect hair cells to the cochlear nuclei in the brain with high precision so as to retain the performance of the auditory system. This project addresses the question as to how this precision is achieved. In particular I propose that hair cell activity - both prehearing spontaneous, and stimulus dependent - might play a fundamental role in the fine tuning of this wiring. I will silence hair cell activity and measure the effect of this on their afferent innervation. To do this, I will express exogenous hyperpolarizing channels in the hair cells, using a hair cell specific promoter to prevent any effect on other cell types. Activity dependent plasticity might be temporally delimited in development. I will therefore render our hair cell specific promoter inducible by using a tetracycline responsive element, so as to restrict silencing to a defined time frame. Furthermore, I will make stochastic mosaics using X-chromosome inactivation to randomly silence half the hair cells. I will then test if the silencing of a given hair cell affects the afferent innervation of its neighbors, which would mean that hair cells compete for innervation through their activity. These experiments will provide a new framework to study the wiring of the cochlea, through which new questions may be addressed at the level of the afferent neurons and downstream. The medical implications of this are two-fold: it will help us understand pathologies related to the improper innervation of the cochlea and to develop strategies to improve the wiring of cochlear implants in the brain.'