Behavioral Consequences and cellular substrates of plasticity in visual cortex

检测可能预测奖励或惩罚的新刺激需要长期的 对熟悉的刺激的记忆和识别。新颖性检测和熟悉性 在神经精神疾病中，认知通常会受到损害，所以理解 神经生物学基础是一个重要的目标。我们最近发现，记忆 视觉刺激熟悉度是通过初级视皮层中的突触修饰来存储的 老鼠的世界。我们研究的主要目的现在是：(A)确定信息是如何 由初级视觉皮质神经元的集体活动和相互作用存储 连接丘脑，(B)精确定位皮层微循环中的关键部位 发生基本突触修改，以及(C)确定这些修改是如何进行的 在电路和行为层面上表达。超出了我们提议的 研究识别视觉识别记忆的潜在机制，他们将 拓宽我们对主要感官区域如何被感官改变的理解 经验，以改变行为，这仍然是 基础神经科学。

Detection of novel stimuli that may predict reward or punishment requires long-term memory for, and recognition of, stimuli that are familiar. Novelty detection and familiarity recognition are often impaired in neuropsychiatric disease, so understanding the neurobiological underpinnings is an important goal. We recently discovered that memory of visual stimulus familiarity is stored via synaptic modifications in primary visual cortex of mice. The primary aims of our research are now to (a) identify how information is stored by the collective activity of neurons in primary visual cortex and the reciprocally connected thalamus, (b) pinpoint the key sites in the cortical microcircuit where the essential synaptic modifications occur, and (c) determine how these modifications are expressed at the level of circuits and behavior. Beyond the relevance of our proposed research to identifying the mechanisms underlying visual recognition memory, they will broaden our understanding of how primary sensory areas are modified by sensory experience in order to modify behavior, which remains one of the great challenges in basic neuroscience.