Toward an animal model of visual simulation

摘要/摘要 这个项目的目标是开发一种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，可以对外部世界不存在的事件进行扩展的可视化。 这种能力是必不可少的，因为它允许动物测试关于世界的策略和推理，使用 视觉机器。到目前为止，几乎所有的视觉模拟探索都是在人类身上进行的，因为 口头指令是唤起受控想象体验的最常见方式。在这里我们介绍一下 一项最初在人类身上测试的针对非人类灵长类受试者的新任务。在目标1中，我们将展示他们的 这项任务的表现反映了人类受试者的表现。然后我们会让这些训练有素的动物实验对象 在执行这项任务时参与清醒功能磁共振研究，以及相关的对照，以测试 假设参与对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可视模拟期间(目标2)。这些目标的成功实现将 为首次系统的视觉心理神经生理学研究提供了一个关键起点 在单个神经元水平上进行模拟。这对于理解丰富的相互作用具有重要意义 在正常知觉和神经系统疾病中，视觉系统和较高的精神功能之间的关系。

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.