Detection of Coherent Motion by Synchronized Neuronal Oscillations

通过同步神经元振荡检测相干运动

• 批准号: 9021521
• 负责人: Charles Gray
• 金额: $ 18.59万
• 依托单位: The Salk Institute for Biological Studies
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 1991
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 1991-04-15 至 1993-09-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=9021521&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Detection; Coherent; Motion; Synchronized; Neuronal

Rapidly oscillating patterns of electrical potentials from nerve cells have been recently reported to be synchronized across multiple regions of the visual cortex of the brain. The origins and function of the oscillations are unknown, but their specificity to certain stimuli and synchrony across regions suggest they may relate to some fundamental visual or cognitive function. This project will test whether the synchronized oscillation in visual cortex is related to visual perception. Specifically, it will test the novel idea that the synchronous neural activity across a region of cortex reflects a cohesive visual image assembled from visual stimuli that move together in a "coherent" way. Single nerve cells in the cortex are known to handle specific properties of visual images, such as location, orientation, color, and temporal features. These experiments will record from single neurons at multiple sites in visual cortex while presenting visual stimuli that are either independent, or connected into a coherently moving object. This test will determine if the coherent oscillation appears only with coherent movement of stimulus pieces. If so, further experiments will explore how the coherence may be related to perception. There is a risk that if not, the excitement about such oscillations may considerably diminish. The impact of this limited study of this novel idea will be very high on visual science and neuroscience in general, and if the outcome is positive, the impact will extend to cognitive science as well.

最近有报道称，神经细胞的电位快速振荡模式在大脑视觉皮层的多个区域是同步的。振荡的起源和功能尚不清楚，但它们对某些刺激的特异性和跨区域的同步性表明它们可能与一些基本的视觉或认知功能有关。本项目将测试视觉皮层的同步振荡是否与视觉感知有关。具体来说，它将测试一种新颖的想法，即跨越皮层区域的同步神经活动反映了一种由视觉刺激以“连贯”的方式聚集在一起的有凝聚力的视觉图像。已知大脑皮层中的单个神经细胞处理视觉图像的特定属性，如位置、方向、颜色和时间特征。这些实验将记录视觉皮层多个位置的单个神经元，同时呈现视觉刺激，这些视觉刺激要么是独立的，要么是与连贯运动的物体相连的。该试验将确定是否只有刺激片的相干运动才会出现相干振荡。如果是这样，进一步的实验将探索连贯性如何与感知相关。如果不这样做，对这种波动的兴奋可能会大大减弱。对这个新想法的有限研究将对视觉科学和神经科学产生很大的影响，如果结果是积极的，影响也将扩展到认知科学。