Toward an animal model of visual simulation

摘要/总结 该项目的目标是开发用于视觉模拟的动物模型。特别是，我们的目标是展示 动物和人类一样，可以对外部世界中不存在的事件进行扩展的可视化。 这种能力至关重要，因为它允许动物测试策略并利用内部推理来推理世界 视觉机械。到目前为止，几乎所有视觉模拟的探索都是在人类身上进行的，例如 口头指示是唤起受控想象体验的最常见方式。这里我们介绍一下 这是一项新颖的任务，最初在人类身上进行了测试，后来又在非人类灵长类动物身上进行了测试。在目标 1 中，我们将证明他们 这项任务的表现反映了人类受试者的表现。然后我们将拥有这些训练有素的动物受试者 在执行此任务时参与清醒的功能磁共振成像研究以及相关的控制，以测试 假设涉及动态视觉事件的主动感知的相同视觉回路被招募 在这些事件的内部驱动的视觉模拟期间（目标 2）。成功完成这些目标将 为视觉心理的首次系统神经生理学研究提供了关键起点 单神经元水平的模拟。这对于理解丰富的相互作用具有重要意义 正常知觉和神经系统疾病中视觉系统和高级心理功能之间的关系。

Abstract/Summary The goal of this project is to develop an animal model for visual simulation. In particular, we aim to show that animals, like humans, can engage in extended visualization of events not present in the external world. This capacity is essential, as it allow animals to test strategies and reason about the world using internal visual machinery. Until now, almost all exploration of visual simulation has been carried out in humans, as verbal instructions are the most common way to evoke controlled imagined experiences. Here we introduce a novel task, initially tested in humans, to non-human primate subjects. In Aim 1, we will show that their performance in this task mirrors that of human subjects. We will then have these trained animal subjects participate in awake fMRI studies while performing this task, and associated controls, in order to test the hypothesis that the same visual circuits involved in active perception of dynamic visual events are recruited during internally driven visual simulation of these events (Aim 2). Successful completion of these aims will provide a key starting point for the first systematic neurophysiological investigations of visual mental simulation at the single neuron level. This has significant implications for understanding the rich interplay between the visual system and higher mental function in both normal perception and neurological disease.