Eye Position and the Neural Basis of Sound Localization

眼睛位置和声音定位的神经基础

• 批准号: 0739493
• 负责人: Jennifer Groh
• 金额: $ 43.87万
• 依托单位: Duke University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2006
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2006-09-01 至 2010-01-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0739493&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Eye; Position; Neural; Basis; Sound

What we see helps us understand what we hear. Knowing the locations of objects seems effortless, regardless of whether we see the object, hear it, or both. Each sensory system determines stimulus location differently. For example, the retina provides the brain with a snapshot-like map of where objects are located with respect to where the eyes are looking. This is an eye-centered frame of reference. In contrast, the perception of sound location involves assessing subtle differences in sound arrival time and volume between the two ears. These differences allow our brains to determine where sounds are located in space with respect to the head and ears - a head-centered frame of reference. This project investigates the neural mechanisms that underlie the communication and coordination between our visual and auditory systems. In particular, the experiments focus on the spatial information gleaned from our eyes and ears. When an object can be both seen and heard, the fact that the eyes can move poses a major problem for relating the visual and auditory components of the object. An object making a sound might lie to the left of your nose, but if your eyes are gazing even farther to the left, the visual image of that object will land on the right side of the retina's map of space. To coordinate and integrate the information gathered by our eyes and ears, the brain must use information about the angle of gaze to translate visual and auditory information into a common frame of reference. How does the brain do this? Previous work has shown that the auditory pathway possesses considerable information about angle of gaze. The specific features of the eye position influence are poorly understood and will be investigated in this project. Specifically, this project will address the role of this eye position signal by recording electroical activity in neurons in the auditory pathways of awake monkeys trained to perform behavioral tasks. The relationship between the brain's eye position signal and the ability to look to the location of a sound will be investigated and the computational features of the eye position signal and the nature of the interaction between eye position and neural responses to sounds will be determined. The results of these experiments will be used to build a detailed model of how visual and auditory information are combined in the brain of an animal whose visual, auditory and oculomotor capacities are similar to those of humans.In tandem with these research objectives this project will foster advanced computer training of graduate and undergraduate students with psychology backgrounds, bring undergraduate and graduate students into laboratory research and disseminate scientific advances to the public by writing articles on these and other scientific findings for newspapers and magazines that reach a broad non-scientific audience.

我们看到的帮助我们理解我们听到的。知道物体的位置似乎毫不费力，无论我们是否看到物体，听到它，或者两者兼而有之。 每个感觉系统确定刺激位置不同。例如，视网膜为大脑提供了一个快照式的地图，显示物体相对于眼睛所看的位置的位置。 这是一个以眼睛为中心的参照系。 相比之下，声音位置的感知涉及评估两耳之间声音到达时间和音量的细微差异。 这些差异使我们的大脑能够确定声音在空间中相对于头部和耳朵的位置-以头部为中心的参考框架。 这个项目研究了我们视觉和听觉系统之间的沟通和协调的神经机制。 特别是，实验重点关注从我们的眼睛和耳朵收集的空间信息。 当一个物体既可以看到又可以听到时，眼睛可以移动的事实给物体的视觉和听觉成分的关联带来了一个主要问题。 一个发出声音的物体可能位于你鼻子的左边，但是如果你的眼睛盯着更左边的地方，那个物体的视觉图像就会落在视网膜空间地图的右边。 为了协调和整合我们的眼睛和耳朵收集的信息，大脑必须使用关于注视角度的信息来将视觉和听觉信息转化为一个共同的参考系。 大脑是如何做到这一点的？ 先前的工作表明，听觉通路拥有相当多的信息的角度注视。 眼睛位置的影响的具体特点是知之甚少，将在这个项目中进行调查。 具体来说，这个项目将通过记录被训练执行行为任务的清醒猴子的听觉通路中的神经元的电活动来解决这种眼睛位置信号的作用。 将研究大脑的眼睛位置信号和寻找声音位置的能力之间的关系，并确定眼睛位置信号的计算特征和眼睛位置与对声音的神经响应之间的相互作用的性质。 这些实验的结果将被用来建立一个详细的模型，说明视觉和听觉信息是如何在一种视觉、听觉和视觉能力与人类相似的动物的大脑中结合起来的。与这些研究目标相结合，该项目将促进具有心理学背景的研究生和本科生的高级计算机培训，将本科生和研究生引入实验室研究，并通过为报纸和杂志撰写关于这些和其他科学发现的文章向公众传播科学进步，这些文章可以接触到广泛的非科学受众。