CAREER: Testing the neural representation of sequences in nonhuman primate frontal cortex using fMRI-localized electrophysiology

职业：使用功能磁共振成像定位电生理学测试非人类灵长类动物额叶皮层序列的神经表征

• 批准号: 2143656
• 负责人: Theresa Desrochers
• 金额: $ 80万
• 依托单位: Brown University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2022-09-01 至 2027-08-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2143656&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: CAREER; Testing; neural; representation; sequences

Humans and animals are great at keeping track of patterns that are important for survival and using this information to predict and respond the right way. For example, when sitting on a bus, we track the order of stops, so we can get ready, stand-up and exit at the right time. To make these responses, we must keep track of the order of individual events. In addition to tracking sequences, our lives are also shaped by our abilities to generate sequences, which are foundational for everything from tying shoelaces to forming a sentence or writing a symphony. Understanding and following sequences also underlies our ability to learn. Illnesses or injuries that impair this tracking can have devastating effects on normal life. However, despite the fundamental importance of tracking sequences, how our brain supports this ability is mostly unknown. Even the most advanced artificial intelligence systems cannot solve many sequential problems that humans and animals can easily perform. In addition to scientific research advancing understanding of the neural basis of sequences, this project also includes an extensive multipronged outreach effort: sharing the excitement of recent discoveries in neuroscience with educational events in the community, in schools and during research-themed fairs, teaching neuroscience to students with diverse backgrounds, and running an annual conference focused on encouraging and supporting women who wish to pursue a career in STEM fields.To deepen our understanding of sequence representation, researchers will record brain activity from a model organism (macaque monkeys) during performance of auditory and visual sequence tracking tasks. This task will illuminate two ways the brain could track sequential information. For example, if a sequence is “ABCD”, one way to know what comes after “B” is to learn that “C” always comes after “B”. This would be a relational representation. Another way to know what comes next is that “C” is always the third item in the sequence – an ordinal representation. We hypothesize that different areas of the brain track these two different kinds of sequence information: the medial part of prefrontal cortex (MPFC) tracks ordinal position - which item goes with which place in the sequence (C is third), and the lateral part of prefrontal cortex (LPFC) receives ordinal information from MPFC to track which item goes with which place (C is third) and combines this with relational information about which item comes next (C after B). Researchers will record brain activity in two different ways while monkeys perform the task: by recording the activity of single cells in the PFC and other brain areas, and by whole brain neuroimaging (using functional magnetic resonance imaging - fMRI). Using these two complementary methods provides two independent kinds of evidence which can be integrated to give more insight into sequence representation. These experiments hold the promise of leading to a deeper understanding of how the brain tracks sequences and how the brain learns and performs complex tasks, which require a sequence of successive actions. The studies on sequence tracking tasks and sequence representation in non-human primates will illuminate and give insight into human cognition and the neural basis of human performance on similar sequencing tasks.This project is jointly funded by the Cognitive Neuroscience Program and by the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR).This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

人类和动物都擅长跟踪对生存至关重要的模式，并利用这些信息来预测和做出正确的反应。例如，当我们坐在公共汽车上时，我们会跟踪停靠站的顺序，这样我们就可以在正确的时间做好准备，站起来并下车。为了做出这些反应，我们必须跟踪单个事件的顺序。除了跟踪序列，我们的生活也受到我们产生序列的能力的影响，这是从系鞋带到形成句子或写交响乐的一切的基础。理解和遵循顺序也是我们学习能力的基础。损害这种跟踪的疾病或伤害可能对正常生活产生破坏性影响。然而，尽管跟踪序列的基本重要性，我们的大脑如何支持这种能力大多是未知的。即使是最先进的人工智能系统也无法解决人类和动物可以轻松执行的许多顺序问题。除了科学研究促进对序列神经基础的理解外，该项目还包括广泛的多管齐下的外展工作：在社区，学校和以研究为主题的展览会期间，通过教育活动分享神经科学最新发现的兴奋，向具有不同背景的学生教授神经科学，并举办年度会议，重点鼓励和支持希望在STEM领域从事职业的女性。为了加深我们对序列表示的理解，研究人员将记录一种模式生物（猕猴）在执行听觉和视觉序列跟踪任务时的大脑活动。这项任务将阐明大脑跟踪序列信息的两种方式。例如，如果一个序列是“ABCD”，要知道“B”后面是什么，一种方法是学习“C”总是在“B”后面。这将是一个关系表示。另一种知道接下来是什么的方法是“C”总是序列中的第三个项目-一个序数表示。我们假设大脑的不同区域跟踪这两种不同类型的序列信息：前额叶皮层的内侧部分（MPFC）跟踪顺序位置-哪个项目与序列中的哪个位置相关联（C是第三个），前额叶外侧区（LPFC）接受MPFC传递的顺序信息，跟踪项目与地点的关系（C是第三个），并将其与下一个项目的相关信息（C在B之后）相结合。研究人员将以两种不同的方式记录猴子执行任务时的大脑活动：通过记录PFC和其他大脑区域的单细胞活动，以及通过全脑神经成像（使用功能性磁共振成像- fMRI）。使用这两种互补的方法提供了两种独立的证据，可以将其整合以更深入地了解序列表示。这些实验有望让我们更深入地了解大脑如何跟踪序列，以及大脑如何学习和执行复杂的任务，这些任务需要一系列连续的动作。本项目由认知神经科学计划和刺激竞争研究既定计划（EPSCoR）共同资助，旨在研究非人类灵长类动物的序列追踪任务和序列表征，以阐明和深入了解人类的认知和人类在类似排序任务中表现的神经基础该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

项目成果

Monkey Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex Represents Abstract Visual Sequences during a No-Report Task.

猴子背外侧前额叶皮层在无报告任务中代表抽象视觉序列。

• DOI: 10.1523/jneurosci.2058-22.2023
• 发表时间: 2023
• 期刊: The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience
• 作者: YusifRodriguez,Nadira;McKim,TheresaH;Basu,Debaleena;Ahuja,Aarit;Desrochers,TheresaM
• 通讯作者: Desrochers,TheresaM