FIBR Planning: Cortical Organization and Limits of Human Potential

这个项目的重点是如何获得复杂的技能相互作用和影响皮质组织。 借用进化生物学的概念框架，适应性和非适应性技能都被考虑在内。研究和大众媒体都表明，在获得复杂技能时，有时会产生积极的相互作用，如音乐技能和数学技能之间的相互作用，有时会产生消极的相互作用，如计算机技能和社会情感技能之间的相互作用。 该项目将使用人类和大鼠作为受试者，并将检查在发育和成年期间的不同时期获得的技能。 分析包括行为和神经解剖测量。 将使用人类神经成像和ERP技术以及动物神经解剖学技术检查皮质组织。 对人类的研究包括实验室、实地和跨文化研究。 规划过程包括三次会议，以制定概念和定义任务和方法，两次旅行，以促进跨文化研究，以及初步实验，以收集人类和大鼠的试点数据。 该建议的学术价值在于要回答的问题的新奇和重要性以及跨学科方法。 获得多种技能对完整个体大脑皮层组织的影响还不清楚。 虽然许多研究已经证明了获得一种技能对皮层组织的影响，但很少有人（如果有的话）考虑过多种技能之间可能的相互作用。 从拟议的研究数据将提供信息的基本过程中的皮质组织面对环境的要求，也对技能的相互作用的行为水平上的收购。 PI和co-PI将他们在神经科学和认知科学方面的专业知识结合在一起，提出了一种跨学科的方法来解决这个问题。 计划活动涉及其他在发育、神经成像、统计建模和进化生物学方面具有专业知识的人。 规划活动将有助于将上述初步概念发展到可以拟订完整提案的程度。 该项目的广泛影响体现在几个层面。在西方社会，越来越多的年轻人面临着学习非适应性技能的压力，因此了解这种压力对其他技能（包括适应性技能和非适应性技能）的影响至关重要。 该项目的结果将对这个社会的教育系统产生基本影响。 此外，规划活动包括招募生物学以外的研究人员参加，其中一些人将来自南卡罗来纳州家乡研究所60英里半径内的五所传统黑人大学。 博士后和研究生的参与对于整个提案的成功至关重要，他们也参与了规划过程。 重要的是，规划过程和拟议的实际研究将涉及许多不同学科的个人合作，包括生物学，心理学，教育和统计学，并将需要所有参与人员在各个领域的培训。

This project focuses on how the acquisition of complex skills interacts with and influences cortical organization. Borrowing a conceptual framework from evolutionary biology, both adaptive and nonadaptive skills are being considered. It has been suggested by research and in the popular press that there is sometimes a positive interaction, such as between musical and mathematical skills, and sometimes a negative interaction, such as between computer and socioemotional skills, when complex skills are acquired. This project will use both humans and rats as subjects and would examine acquisition of the skills during various times during development and in adulthood. Analyses include both behavioral and neuroanatomical measures. Cortical organization will be examined using neuroimaging and ERP technology in humans and neuroanatomical techniques in animals. Studies in humans include laboratory, field and cross-cultural studies. The planning process includes three meetings to develop concepts and define tasks and approaches, two trips to facilitate the cross-cultural studies, and initial experiments to gather pilot data from both humans and rats. The intellectual merit of the proposal resides within the novelty and importance of the question to be answered and the interdisciplinary approach. The impact of acquisition of multiple skills on cortical organization in intact individuals is not well understood. While many studies have demonstrated effects of the acquisition of one skill on cortical organization, few, if any, have considered the possible interactions of multiple skills. The data from the proposed studies will provide information about the basic processes of cortical organization in the face of environmental demands and also about the interactions of skill acquisition on a behavioral level. The PI and co-PI bring their expertise in neuroscience and cognitive science together to propose an interdisciplinary approach to the question. The planning activities involve others with expertise in development, neuroimaging, statistical modeling, and evolutionary biology. The planning activities will be instrumental in developing the initial concepts outlined above to the point where a full proposal can be developed. The broader impacts of this project are at several levels. Given that there is increasing pressure to acquire non-adaptive skills at younger and younger ages in Western society, understanding the effects of this pressure on other skills, both adaptive and non-adaptive, is essential. The outcome of the project will have basic implications for the education system in this society. In addition, the planning activities include recruitment of researchers outside of biology to participate and some of these individuals will be from the five traditionally black colleges within a 60 mile radius of the home institute in South Carolina. The involvement of both postdoctoral and graduate students will be crucial to the success of the full proposal and they are involved in the planning process as well. Importantly, the planning process and the actual studies proposed will involve collaboration of individuals across a number of different disciplines, including biology, psychology, education, and statistics and will require training in the various fields of all involved individuals.