NCS-FO: Probing the Functional Significance of Brain Oscillations through Closed-Loop Phase-Locked Stimulation

NCS-FO：通过闭环锁相刺激探讨大脑振荡的功能意义

• 批准号: 1631329
• 负责人: Jochen Ditterich
• 金额: $ 80.23万
• 依托单位: University of California-Davis
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2016
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2016-09-01 至 2021-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1631329&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: NCS; FO; Probing; Functional; Significance

Oscillatory activity in the brain has been known for a long time, but its functional significance is still being debated. It has recently been proposed that neural oscillations play an important role in controlling how information flows in the brain and which ensembles of neurons are able to exchange information, allowing the brain to flexibly adjust to varying task demands. While this view has been supported by recordings of brain activity from particular subsystems, a rigorous test of the ideas requires manipulation of brain activity to establish a causal link between synchronized brain activity and neural communication. While experimental techniques for generally suppressing or enhancing neural activity are readily available, addressing this scientific question requires new technology for manipulating neural activity with a precise timing relationship relative to ongoing neural activity. The goal of this research project is to develop a closed-loop stimulation system that can analyze ongoing brain oscillations in real time and that uses the resulting information to trigger neural stimulation. This allows manipulating neural activity time-locked to ongoing activity at another location in the brain. Sharing this tool with the scientific community is expected to provide novel, fundamental insights into the functional significance of synchronized brain activity in a variety of neural systems, which cannot be obtained with currently available technology. The technique might also find application in neural prostheses and brain stimulation systems for the treatment of neurologic and psychiatric disorders. The project involves: 1) Developing an algorithm that reliably extracts instantaneous frequency and phase of a dominant oscillatory component from a local field potential and accurately predicts the next occurrence of particular phase angles. 2) Implementing the algorithm(s) in a combination of software and hardware that is fast enough for real-time control of a stimulation device. 3) Validating the closed-loop stimulation technique in vivo and developing applications for studying cortico-cortical and thalamo-cortical communication. Successful development of such a system would remove a major obstacle for testing theories about the functional significance of the timing of neural signals, in particular synchronized rhythmic activity. It would allow going beyond correlational measures and exploring the behavioral (and neural) consequences of artificial manipulation of neural signals contingent on the timing of currently ongoing neural activity. With the help of this technology, a major advance in understanding the role of the timing of neural signals in coding and transmitting information between ensembles of neurons is expected.

大脑中的振荡活动已经知道很久了，但其功能意义仍在争论中。最近有人提出，神经振荡在控制信息如何在大脑中流动以及哪些神经元能够交换信息方面发挥着重要作用，从而使大脑能够灵活地适应不同的任务需求。虽然这一观点得到了特定子系统的大脑活动记录的支持，但对这一观点的严格测试需要操纵大脑活动，以建立同步大脑活动和神经通信之间的因果关系。虽然一般抑制或增强神经活动的实验技术是现成的，解决这个科学问题需要新的技术来操纵神经活动与精确的定时关系相对于正在进行的神经活动。该研究项目的目标是开发一种闭环刺激系统，可以在真实的时间内分析正在进行的脑振荡，并使用由此产生的信息来触发神经刺激。这允许操纵神经活动时间锁定到大脑中另一个位置的正在进行的活动。与科学界分享这一工具有望为各种神经系统中同步大脑活动的功能意义提供新的、基本的见解，这是目前可用技术无法获得的。该技术还可能应用于神经假体和脑刺激系统，用于治疗神经和精神疾病。该项目涉及：1）开发一种算法，该算法从局部场电位可靠地提取主导振荡分量的瞬时频率和相位，并准确地预测特定相位角的下一次出现。2)在软件和硬件的组合中实现算法，其对于刺激设备的实时控制足够快。3)验证闭环刺激技术在体内和开发应用研究皮质-皮质和丘脑-皮质通信。这种系统的成功开发将消除测试神经信号定时功能意义理论的主要障碍，特别是同步节奏活动。它将允许超越相关性测量，并探索人工操纵神经信号的行为（和神经）后果，这取决于当前正在进行的神经活动的时间。在这项技术的帮助下，预计在理解神经信号的时序在神经元集合之间编码和传输信息的作用方面将取得重大进展。