The Functional Role of Experience in the Development of Visual Cortical Circuits

经验在视觉皮层回路发展中的功能作用

• 批准号: 1120938
• 负责人: Stephen Van Hooser
• 金额: $ 90万
• 依托单位: Brandeis University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2011
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2011-09-01 至 2016-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1120938&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Functional; Role; Experience; Development; Visual

The goal of the present research project is to uncover how the astonishingly complex structure of human and animal brains emerges during development and how it becomes well-suited to perform highly sophisticated behaviors. The PIs will use the latest multi-electrode, imaging and opto-genetic methods of electrophysiology to measure the functional development of neural circuits in the visual cortex from eye opening until the full maturity of the visual system. If successful, this project will reveal how incoming visual stimuli are combined with previous visual memories stored in the brain to interpret the visual environment. This work will illuminate how experience influences the development of the circuitry in the visual cortex. The potential scientific impact of this research is extremely high because it can, through using the visual system as a model example, clarify of how the brain adapts to the environment to perform its function. This work will have a broader impact on the advancement of science, as students and postdoctoral fellows will be trained to integrate the study of behaving animals with advanced neural recording and stimulation technologies. Further, the computer code for performing recordings and analysis will be published on the authors? websites, and the authors will provide instructional tutorials so that others can build upon the methods developed here. The resulting data will be published on the authors? websites so other scientists can examine and extend the results. Finally, insights gained about how the environment influences the development of neural circuitry are likely to have implications that could reach as far as designing more effective educational tools and creating more supportive work environments.

本研究项目的目标是揭示人类和动物大脑极其复杂的结构是如何在发育过程中出现的，以及它如何变得非常适合执行高度复杂的行为。 研究人员将使用最新的多电极、成像和光遗传电生理学方法，测量从睁眼到视觉系统完全成熟的视觉皮层神经回路的功能发育。 如果成功的话，这个项目将揭示传入的视觉刺激是如何与存储在大脑中的先前视觉记忆相结合来解释视觉环境的。这项工作将阐明经验如何影响视觉皮层中电路的发展。 这项研究的潜在科学影响是非常高的，因为它可以通过使用视觉系统作为模型示例，阐明大脑如何适应环境以执行其功能。这项工作将对科学的进步产生更广泛的影响，因为学生和博士后研究员将接受培训，将动物行为的研究与先进的神经记录和刺激技术相结合。 此外，用于执行记录和分析的计算机代码将在作者？网站，作者将提供教学教程，以便其他人可以建立在这里开发的方法。由此产生的数据将发表在作者？网站，以便其他科学家可以检查和扩展结果。最后，关于环境如何影响神经回路发展的见解可能会影响设计更有效的教育工具和创造更支持性的工作环境。