# Top-down and bottom-up signals for flexible orofacial behaviors

> **NIH NIH U19** · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO · 2024 · $612,463

## Abstract

Abstract
Project 5: Top-down and bottom-up signals for flexible orofacial behaviors (O’Connor as lead)
Orofacial behaviors involve sequences of individual motor actions — such as chewing, licking, swallowing,
breathing, and so forth — that must be tightly coordinated given the essential function they play in sustaining life
and the dire consequences of errors in coordination such as choking or aspirating foodstuffs. In mammals,
orofacial behaviors are also highly flexible and can be altered in real-time based on sensory feedback and
behavioral context, for instance during vocal social communication, biting, and sniffing. How the brain satisfies
the competing demands of tight coordination and high flexibility remains an important unresolved problem. Its
solution will require a quantitative understanding of how high-level cortical circuits interact with the mid- and low-
level hindbrain circuits that mediate orofacial behavior, and how high-level signals for planning and control
interact with low-level sensory feedback signals.
The goals of Project 5 are: (1) to develop a set of licking-based behavioral tasks for mice that have varying
sensorimotor requirements; (2) to quantify descending task-related signals that populations of neurons in
orofacial areas of the cortex send to mid- and hindbrain circuits that control orofacial behaviors; and (3) quantify
ascending feedback signals that may impact high-level control. Project 5 will provide crucial insight into the
dynamics of the circuits for descending control that are studied anatomically in Project 4 and provide constraints
on the models developed in Projects 1 and 2. Results will also establish functional roles of the descending inputs
to the brainstem oscillators studied in Project 3 and the integrative midbrain hubs studied in Project 1.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10930311
- **Project number:** 1U19NS137920-01
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO
- **Principal Investigator:** Daniel Hans O'Connor
- **Activity code:** U19 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $612,463
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2024-08-15 → 2029-07-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10930311

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10930311, Top-down and bottom-up signals for flexible orofacial behaviors (1U19NS137920-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-06-12 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10930311. Licensed CC0.

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