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Collaborative Research:NCS-FO:Volitional modulation of neural activity in the visual cortex

合作研究：NCS-FO：视觉皮层神经活动的意志调节

基本信息

批准号：
1734916
负责人：
Byron Yu
金额：
$ 49.84万
依托单位：
Carnegie-Mellon University
依托单位国家：
美国
项目类别：
Standard Grant
财政年份：
2017
资助国家：
美国
起止时间：
2017-09-01 至 2022-08-31
项目状态：
已结题

来源：
https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1734916&HistoricalAwards=false
关键词：
Collaborative Research NCS FO Volitional

项目摘要

This project is funded by Integrative Strategies for Understanding Neural and Cognitive Systems (NSF-NCS), a multidisciplinary program jointly supported by the Directorates for Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE), Education and Human Resources (EHR), Engineering (ENG), and Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences (SBE). Even basic perception of the world is not as simple as light coming into the eyes or sound coming into the ears. Rather, perception involves combining the incoming sensory information with cognitive processes such as past experiences, knowledge about the world, and personal tendencies. In other words, two people observing the same events (i.e., receiving the same sensory information) can arrive at different interpretations of what is happening in the environment. How the brain combines sensory information with these cognitive processes, and where this occurs in the brain, is incompletely understood. The key innovation of this project is to use a brain-computer interface (BCI) to tease apart which aspects of the brain's activity are sensory versus cognitive and how the two are combined in the brain to produce perception of the world. BCIs are widely-known for their ability to help paralyzed patients and amputees by allowing them to move a computer cursor or robotic arm simply by thinking about moving. Few studies have used BCIs as an experimental tool to understand sensory areas of the brain, as this project seeks to do. This work is likely to lead to a deeper understanding of how we perceive the world, as well as insights into how BCI can be used to help treat psychiatric disorders and recover function after injury. Furthermore, the investigators are developing BCI-based lab exercises for undergraduate courses, training researchers to become well-versed in experimental and computational neuroscience, and involving undergraduates, including women and underrepresented minorities, in the research. This project focuses on visual area V4, which is known to be a crossroads for sensory and cognitive processes during visual perception. To dissect what aspects of neural activity are sensory versus cognitive, the investigators train animal subjects to volitionally modulate their V4 activity. The BCI provides subjects with moment-by-moment auditory feedback of their V4 activity. This project assesses what aspects of V4 activity can be volitionally (i.e., cognitively) modulated, how volitional modulation of V4 activity affects visual perception, and how malleable is the interaction between V4 and another brain area (prefrontal cortex) during visual perception. The key advantage of using BCI for this study is that it allows the investigators to challenge the subjects to produce particular patterns of neural activity. The investigators can specify in the BCI which patterns of activity yield a reward. This technique allows them to assess what aspects of the neural activity can be volitionally controlled by the animal (i.e., cognitive), and what aspects are hard-wired to the outside world (i.e., sensory). The applications of this BCI paradigm are extremely broad, and can be used to study other sensory, cognitive, and motor systems.

该项目由理解神经和认知系统的综合策略(NSF-NCS)资助，NSF-NCS是一个多学科项目，由计算机和信息科学与工程(CEISE)、教育和人力资源(EHR)、工程(ENG)以及社会、行为和经济科学(SBE)的主管部门联合支持。即使是对世界的基本感知也不是光进入眼睛或声音进入耳朵那么简单。相反，感知包括将传入的感觉信息与认知过程相结合，如过去的经验、关于世界的知识和个人倾向。换句话说，两个观察相同事件的人(即，接收到相同的感官信息)可以对环境中发生的事情得出不同的解释。大脑是如何将感觉信息与这些认知过程结合在一起的，以及这一过程在大脑中发生在哪里，目前还不完全清楚。该项目的关键创新是使用脑机接口(BCI)来梳理大脑活动的哪些方面是感觉和认知，以及这两者在大脑中是如何结合在一起产生对世界的感知的。BCI因其帮助瘫痪患者和截肢者的能力而广为人知，方法是允许他们仅仅通过思考移动来移动计算机光标或机械臂。很少有研究使用脑机接口作为实验工具来了解大脑的感觉区域，就像这个项目试图做到的那样。这项工作可能会让我们更深入地了解我们是如何感知世界的，以及如何利用脑机接口来帮助治疗精神障碍和恢复受伤后的功能。此外，研究人员正在为本科课程开发基于脑-机接口的实验室练习，培训研究人员精通实验和计算神经科学，并让本科生参与研究，包括女性和代表性不足的少数族裔。这个项目的重点是视觉区域V4，它被认为是视觉感知过程中感觉和认知过程的十字路口。为了剖析神经活动的哪些方面是感觉和认知的，研究人员训练动物受试者自愿调节他们的V4活动。BCI为受试者提供他们的V4活动的每时每刻的听觉反馈。这个项目评估了V4活动的哪些方面可以被意志(即，认知)调节，V4活动的意志调节如何影响视觉感知，以及V4与另一个大脑区域(前额叶皮质)在视觉感知过程中的相互作用有多大的可塑性。在这项研究中使用脑机接口的主要优势是，它允许研究人员挑战受试者，以产生特定的神经活动模式。调查人员可以在BCI中指定哪些活动模式会产生奖励。这项技术允许他们评估神经活动的哪些方面可以由动物自愿控制(即认知)，以及哪些方面与外部世界硬连接(即感觉)。这种脑机接口范式的应用非常广泛，可以用来研究其他感觉、认知和运动系统。