Motor Learning Leads to Modifications of Gene Expression Profile in M1 Astrocytes. Motor Learning Leads to Modifications of Gene Expression Profile in M1 Astrocytes

While motor cortex is crucial for the learning of precise and reliable movements, whether astrocytes contribute to its plasticity and function during motor learning is unknown. Here we report that primary motor cortex (M1) astrocytes in mice show gene expression changes associated with learning a cued lever-push task, including changes in glutamate transport genes Overall design: Wild-type mice were water restricted and then trained to perform a cued lever push task (Peters et al., 2014) in which a lever press beyond a set threshold following trial start was rewarded with a water drop. We compared transcriptomic profiles of astrocytes isolated from the M1 cortex of mice trained for only three days (novice mice) or fully trained (expert mice) to the transcriptominc profile of untrained, naive mice.

虽然运动皮层（motor cortex）对于精准且可靠的运动学习至关重要，但星形胶质细胞（astrocytes）是否参与运动学习过程中运动皮层的可塑性与功能调控，目前仍未明确。本研究报道，小鼠初级运动皮层（primary motor cortex, M1）内的星形胶质细胞在学习信号提示压杆任务（cued lever-push task）的过程中，会出现与该学习过程相关的基因表达变化，其中包括谷氨酸转运基因（glutamate transport genes）的表达改变。

实验设计概述：对野生型小鼠实施饮水限制后，训练其完成信号提示压杆任务（该实验范式引自Peters等2014年的研究），具体为小鼠在试验启动后按压杠杆至设定阈值，即可获得水滴作为奖励。我们将仅接受3天训练的小鼠（新手小鼠）与完全训练达标小鼠（专家小鼠）的M1皮层分离得到的星形胶质细胞转录组谱，与未经过训练的 naive 小鼠（naive mice）的星形胶质细胞转录组谱进行了对比分析。