Toward an animal model of visual simulation

摘要/概要 本项目的目标是开发一种用于视觉模拟的动物模型。特别是，我们的目标是显示 动物，像人类一样，可以对外部世界中不存在的事件进行扩展的可视化。 这种能力是必不可少的，因为它使动物能够测试策略，并利用内部的 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， 口头指令是唤起受控想象体验的最常见方式。这里我们介绍 这是一项新颖的任务，最初在人类身上进行了测试，然后在非人类灵长类动物受试者身上进行了测试。在目标1中，我们将证明他们的 在这项任务中的表现反映了人类受试者的表现。然后我们会让这些经过训练的动物实验对象 参与清醒时的fMRI研究，同时执行这项任务，以及相关的控制，以测试 假设参与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过程中（目标2）。成功实现这些目标将 提供了一个关键的起点，第一个系统的神经生理学调查的视觉心理 单神经元水平的模拟。这对理解丰富的相互作用具有重要意义 视觉系统和高级精神功能之间的关系，无论是在正常的感知和神经疾病。

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.