# Dopamine regulation of infant perceptual motor development and communication

> **NIH NIH R01** · STANFORD UNIVERSITY · 2024 · $547,692

## Abstract

Project Summary
Healthy development in children relies on social recognition of caregivers and communication of needs, which
requires evaluating sensory information and making appropriate and intentional movements. Although this
process, referred to as perceptual motor development, is critical for infant social bonding, cognitive development,
and lifelong wellbeing, the neuronal basis remains largely unknown. This severe gap in knowledge stems, in
part, from the difficulty in manipulating neonate brains and a paucity of robust neonate behaviors as reliable
motor outputs in traditional laboratory animals. To address this deficit, this research aims to uncover basic brain
mechanisms of neonate social-motor displays using social tadpoles that beg their parents for food by dancing.
We combine this novel research organism and behavioral paradigm with advanced neurogenetic tools to
interrogate the neuronal substrates of perceptual motor development for infant communication. Recent data from
our lab shows that parental recognition is based on olfactory cues, the begging motor display is regulated by
dopamine signaling, and the fragile X protein FMRP is enriched specifically in begging neurons. Based on this
robust preliminary data, we propose to test the hypothesis that FMRP regulates the dopaminergic signaling
required for perceptual motor development. As social recognition is a critical component of infant communication
towards caregivers, we will determine how olfactory cues encode caregiver recognition and gate the activity of
dopaminergic neurons necessary for begging displays using in vivo imaging and cell ablation experiments. We
will also test the role of FMRP in tuning dopaminergic signaling by examining transcriptional changes in
dopamine-sensitive cells in FMRP knockout tadpoles compared to wild type animals. Finally, voluntary motor
movements likely involve striatal neurons and preliminary suggests begging tadpoles have increased striatal
activity. We will functionally test the role of the dopaminergic inputs into the striatum in executing begging
behavior and determine how FMRP tunes striatal dopamine signaling. Together, the proposed experiments will
systematically dissect the mechanisms by which FMRP and dopamine neurons regulate infant social recognition
and communication in a research organism with experimental tractability and a robust social-motor output that
is difficult to achieve in other research organisms. As the molecular factors and overall brain organization of
social-motor behaviors are conserved across vertebrates, this research will identify generalizable principles of
perceptual motor development, a behavior critical for infant survival and life-long wellbeing.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10908686
- **Project number:** 5R01HD110514-02
- **Recipient organization:** STANFORD UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Lauren A O'Connell
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $547,692
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2023-09-01 → 2028-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10908686

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10908686, Dopamine regulation of infant perceptual motor development and communication (5R01HD110514-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10908686. Licensed CC0.

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