Uncovering the Functional Organization and Cell Type Composition of Cortical Face Areas

项目摘要 我们对皮层回路的运作如何帮助高水平视觉的理解存在着根本性的差距。 像人脸识别这样的信息处理。这种概念上的差距构成了一个重要的 问题，因为，直到它被填满，它既不可能解释人脸识别和计算脸- 选择性网络实现，也不理解面部识别障碍的原因， 发育性面容失认症（脸盲）。长期的目标是了解神经机制， 人脸识别，并建立一个实现神经计算的人工人脸识别系统， 机械地解释面部识别。该提案的总体目标是朝着以下目标迈出一大步： 这一目标：建立一种新的方法和一个新的模型系统，允许成像的大神经 在面选择性区域和周围区域内具有单细胞分辨率和细胞类型分化的群体 地区这些技术进步有望导致对职能组织的理解 以及它如何影响面部的人口代码。将要检验的中心假设是， 面部区域由具有不同功能专业化的多个列组成，并且面部代码是 高度细胞类型特异性。这项建议的理据是，在拟议的研究完成后， 在理解皮层回路运作如何实现高水平视觉方面的核心空白将是 缩小通过建立一个新的模式系统，以前所未有的权力，以揭示功能 物体识别的总体编码的组织和电路机制。该假设将通过以下方式进行检验： 追求两个特定的目标：1）揭示绒猴大脑面部特化的空间组织; 以及2）确定面部选择区域中面部表示的细胞类型特异性。双光子 在视觉刺激期间的钙成像，结合组织清除和细胞类型识别， 免疫组织化学将识别面部区域及其周围的功能组织， 细胞分辨率这一办法是创新的，因为它提出了一种新的、实质性的做法， 因为它解决了一个NEI相关的问题，社会感知的神经机制，在一个新的 路上了拟议的研究是重要的，因为它将提供一个关键的一步， 对面部区域内部执行的神经计算的理解，允许高度的 改进人工面部处理系统，并推进我们对面部功能组织的理解。 面区域在一个新的维度，并从单细胞水平的面区域的水平。结果将取决于 确定高级视觉电路的分子组织的基础， 转基因疾病模型的开发。因此，该项目直接关系到理解 面孔失认症，以及自闭症谱系障碍等综合征中改变的社会信息处理， 脆性X染色体和威廉姆斯综合征。

PROJECT SUMMARY There is a fundamental gap in our understanding of how cortical circuit operations aid in high-level visual information-processing like face recognition. The existence of this conceptual gap constitutes an important problem because, until it is filled, it will neither be possible to explain face recognition and the computations face- selective networks implement, nor understand the reasons for face-recognition impairments in disorders like developmental prosopagnosia (face blindness). The long-term goal is to understand the neural mechanisms of face recognition and build an artificial face-recognition system implementing neural computations and thus explain face recognition mechanistically. The overall objective of this proposal presents a major step towards this goal: the establishment of a new approach and a new model system that permits imaging of large neural populations with single-cell resolution and cell-type differentiation within face-selective areas and surrounding regions. These technological advances are expected to lead to the understanding of the functional organization of face areas and how it impacts population codes for faces. The central hypotheses that will be tested, are that face areas are composed of multiple columns with different functional specializations, and that facial codes are highly cell type specific. The rationale for this proposal is that, after completion of the proposed research, the central gap in the understanding of how cortical circuit operations enable high-level vision will have been narrowed through the establishment of a new model system with unprecedented power to uncover the functional organization and circuit mechanisms of population codes of object recognition. The hypothesis will be tested by pursuing two specific aims: 1) Uncover the Spatial Organization of Face-Specializations of the Marmoset Brain; and 2) Determine the Cell-Type Specificity of Face Representations in Face-Selective areas. Two-photon calcium imaging during visual stimulation, combined with tissue clearing and cell type identification through immunohistochemistry will identify the functional organization of face areas and their surroundings with single- cell resolution. The approach is innovative because it presents a new and substantive departure from the status quo and because it addresses an NEI-relevant problem, the neural mechanisms of social perception, in a new way. The proposed research is significant, because it will provide a critical step forward towards a mechanistic understanding of the neural computations performed inside face areas, allow for the development of highly improved artificial face-processing systems, and advance our understanding of the functional organization of face areas in a new dimension and from the level of single cells to the level of face areas. The outcomes will lay the foundation for the determination of the molecular organization of high-level visual circuits and the development of transgenic disease models. The project, therefore, is of direct relevance for the understanding of prosopagnosia, as well as altered social information processing in syndromes like autism spectrum disorders, fragile X, and Williams syndrome.