讲座摘要（abstract） i mainly focused on using mwake as a genetic entrée to investigate the molecular and circuit basis of rhythmic behavior. we first showed that mwake acts as a clock-dependent brake on arousal during the night. rather than a simple model whereby the clock acts in a uniform manner to promote arousal during an animal’s active phase and enhance sleep during their quiescent phase, we found that the clock has a mixed approach to generating rhythmic arousal. our data suggest that specific molecules and circuits under clock control actively oppose the dominant sleep/arousal rhythms, in order to shape the appropriate level of arousal. following this work, i focused on studying the physiological and molecular mechanisms related to a local brain oscillator in the lateral amygdala (la) and how it rhythmically coordinates different behaviors. in addition to cyclical clock gene expression, brain oscillators should also exhibit rhythms of electrical activity. however, no genetic marker exists that labels electrically rhythmic neural circuits. in this project, we first showed that mwake is enriched in a molecularly-defined subregion of the la (anterior-dorsal la/adla). although the core clock protein per2 cycles throughout the la, we show that only mwake-positive, but not mwake-negative, adla neurons exhibit rhythmic intrinsic excitability. surprisingly, impairing clock function or glutamate signaling in adlamwake neurons eliminates per2 cycling in a non-cell autonomous manner throughout the la. at a molecular level, the mechanisms mediating rhythmic excitability outside of the scn are poorly understood. we show that mwake levels rise at night in adlamwake neurons and upregulate bk current to inhibit the excitability of these cells at night. finally, we show that, rather than modulating an individual behavior, adlamwake neurons utilize distinct projections to produce clock- and mwake-dependent rhythmic changes in two different behaviors: touch sensitivity and internal anxiety-like behavior. our investigation of the first discrete extra-scn brain oscillator also reveals new insights into the nature of the circadian timing network. 主讲人简介：
科学
