FUNCTIONAL STREAMS IN THE PRIMATE VISUAL CORTEX

描述：主要研究者和他的团队建议扩大我们的 了解大细胞和小细胞的功能 在灵长类动物的视野中，尤其是它们与 细胞色素氧化酶斑点的解剖学鉴定的神经群体 以及区域V1和V2中的条纹。 这将通过记录神经 活动从视觉皮层的猕猴使用光学方法和 用Karhunen-Loeve（KL）原理的扩展分析图像 组件方法 这种方法将提供有关 协调活动的时空分布。 他们建议 这些信息包含在少量空间隔离的 动态组件，其中一些组件对应于已知的 皮质结构，如眼优势柱。 本研究将（1） 研究已知神经元亚群（流）对 通过使用两个互补的光学监测神经元活动 方法：a）使用主要激发一个细胞的视觉刺激 群体如M-流和B）沉默选择的神经元 通过将Mg++或利多卡因压力注射到部分的 外侧膝状体核，2）比较从CO记录的光学信号 斑点与从斑点间区域记录的斑点，3）比较光学 活动地图与CO斑点的分布，以及4）将 光学活性和同时记录的电活性 皮质神经元 PI认为，这些组合的装置将 进一步揭示视觉皮层的组织原则， 加深我们对其组成流的功能的理解。

DESCRIPTION: The Principal Investigator and his team propose to expand our understanding of the functions of the magnocellular and parvocellular streams in primate vision and especially their relationships to the anatomically identified neural populations of the cytochrome oxidase blobs and stripes in areas V1 and V2. This will be achieved by recording neural activity from the visual cortex of macaque monkeys using optical methods and analyzing the images with extensions of the Karhunen-Loeve (KL) principle component methods. This approach will provide information about both the spatial and temporal distributions of coordinated activity. They suggest that this information is contained in a small number of spatially segregated dynamical components and that some of these components correspond to known cortical structures such as ocular dominance columns. The study will 1) investigate the contributions of known neuronal subpopulations (streams) to the optically monitored neuronal activity by using two complimentary methods: a) use of visual stimuli that excite primarily one cell populations such as the M-stream and b) silence selected neuronal populations by pressure injections of Mg++ or lidocaine into portions of the lateral geniculate nucleus, 2) compare optical signals recorded from CO blobs with those recorded from interblob regions, 3) compare the optical activity maps with the distribution of CO blobs, and 4) correlate the optical activity with simultaneously recorded electrical activity of cortical neurons. The PI believes that these combined apparoches will reveal further organizational principles of the visual cortex and will deepen our understanding of the functions of its constituent streams.