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。新颖性检测和熟悉度 神经精神疾病的识别能力常常受到损害，因此了解 神经生物学基础是一个重要目标。我们最近发现内存 视觉刺激熟悉度是通过初级视觉皮层的突触修饰来存储的 的老鼠。我们现在研究的主要目标是 (a) 确定信息是如何存在的 由初级视觉皮层神经元的集体活动和交互存储 连接丘脑，(b) 精确定位皮质微电路中的关键位点 重要的突触修饰发生，并且 (c) 确定这些修饰是如何进行的 表达在电路和行为的层面上。超出我们提议的相关性 研究确定视觉识别记忆背后的机制，他们将 拓宽我们对主要感觉区域如何被感觉改变的理解 经验以改变行为，这仍然是巨大的挑战之一 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.