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 对熟悉刺激的记忆和识别。新奇发现与熟悉 在神经精神疾病中，认知能力往往受损，因此， 神经生物学基础是一个重要的目标。我们最近发现记忆 视觉刺激熟悉度的变化是通过初级视皮层的突触修饰来存储的 对小鼠我们研究的主要目的是（a）确定信息是如何被 由初级视皮层和视皮层神经元的集体活动存储 连接丘脑，（B）精确定位皮质微回路中的关键部位， 发生必要的突触修饰，以及（c）确定这些修饰是如何发生的。 表现在电路和行为的层面上。除了我们提议的 研究，以确定视觉识别记忆的机制，他们将 扩大我们对初级感觉区域如何被感觉改变的理解。 经验，以改变行为，这仍然是最大的挑战之一， 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.