NEURAL COMPUTATIONS IN VISUAL CORTEX

我们计划研究大鼠初级视皮层的视觉信息处理。 处于局部场势水平的猕猴和 单人单位。在最初的资助期，我们制定了一套 中检查和建模空间和时间交互的技术 视觉皮质的细节和精致程度更高。结果 通过这些技术获得的证据提供了参与的证据 在空间特征的提取中，将它们联系起来 特征、分段和时间编码。计划中的研究将 建立在这些发现的基础上，并将按两条线组织： 一类横向相互作用的功能作用，以及功能 视觉输入对时间相关的影响 神经活动的结构。 对横向相互作用的研究将确定它们如何依赖于 对比度，它们是否在空间尺度上携带信息，彩色 内容或取向，无论它们是否选择性地只调制一些 皮质形态处理的各个方面，以及它们是否在椎板上有所不同。 对这些问题的回答将有助于确定这些互动是否 对于特征提取、分割、“填充”和 其他流程。 视觉刺激如何调节正在进行的相关结构的研究 神经活动的研究将从使用锁相谱开始 分析以测试这一过程的动力学模型。然后我们将检查 这一过程的空间范围，它所承载的程度 关于视觉刺激及其薄层的特定信息 组织。这些发现将有助于确定VI在多大程度上 将视觉信息转换为时间代码，以及这种时间代码是如何 生成代码。 这项研究的一个中心主题是，非线性具有巨大的 在空间和时间处理中的功能重要性。一个 成功地研究复杂的非线性系统需要剪裁 对感兴趣的生物学问题的实验方法。因此， 这项研究计划的一个明确部分是继续开发 探索非线性神经的新实验和分析技术 系统，以及理论和实验之间的紧密互动。 视觉信息处理被认为是一种感官模型 一般的信息处理。试析“横向”所扮演的角色 脑内持续神经活动的相互作用和时间模式 形状和颜色的处理使我们能够研究特征提取、交叉分析 通道相互作用，以及在特定环境中的神经编码 假设可能会被提出，模型可能会被检验。

We plan to study visual information processing in primary visual cortex of the macaque monkey at the level of the local field potential and the single unit. In the initial funding period, we have developed a set of techniques to examine and model spatial and temporal interactions in the visual cortex at an advanced level of detail and sophistication. Results obtained with these techniques have provided evidence of the involvement of VI in the extraction of spatial features, the linking of these features, segmentation, and temporal coding. The planned research will build on these findings, and will be organized along two lines: the functional role of a class of lateral interactions, and the functional role of the influence of visual inputs on the temporal correlation structure of neural activity. The study of lateral interactions will determine how they depend on contrast, whether they carry information on spatial scale, chromatic content, or orientation, whether they selectively modulate only some aspects of cortical form processing, and whether they vary across laminae. Answers to these questions will help determine whether these interactions are important for feature extraction, segmentation, "filling-in", and other processes. The study of how visual stimuli modulate the ongoing correlation structure of neural activity will begin with the use of phase-locked spectral analysis to test dynamical models for this process. We will then examine the spatial extent of this process, the degree to which it carries specific information concerning the visual stimulus, and its laminar organization. These findings will help determine to what extent VI transforms visual information into a temporal code, and how such temporal codes are generated. A central theme in this research is that nonlinearities are of great functional importance in both spatial and temporal processing. A successful study of complex nonlinear systems requires tailoring of the experimental approach to the biological questions of interest. Therefore, an explicit part of this research program is the continued development of new experimental and analytic techniques to probe nonlinear neural systems, and a tight interaction between theory and experiment. Visual information processing is considered to be a model for sensory information processing in general. Analysis of the roles played by lateral interactions and temporal patterns of ongoing neural activity in the processing of form and color allow us to study feature extraction, cross- modality interactions, and neural coding in a context in which specific hypotheses may be proposed and models may be tested.