MODELS OF CORRELATION BASED NEURAL DEVELOPMENT

描述（改编自申请人的摘要）：该项目的许多方面 神经发育的后期阶段由神经元活动引导。 之前和之后的内在活动模式都给出了指导 出生，以及出生后经历所产生的活动。 理论 研究将探讨活动依赖机制在 哺乳动物初级视觉皮层的发育。 这样的皮质 机制似乎在人类的许多方面发挥着重要作用 健康，包括斜视和弱视等视力障碍 以及视网膜术后视觉功能的恢复和重组 病变。 理论研究将解决以下具体问题 初级视觉皮层发育中的问题：（1） 视网膜局部图、眼图之间可能发展的关系 优势、方向、视差和其他皮质感受野 属性，例如首选空间频率和空间相位，以及 这些属性之间的关系是在个体接受过程中发展起来的 字段，当输入四种类型（ON-center 和 OFF-center 从左 和右眼）竞争支配二维皮质层 代表初级视觉皮层的第 4 层； (2) 关系 在兴奋性和抑制性神经元的感受野之间发展 当两种类型的神经元都被包括在内时，具有真实的连接性， 第4层电路的模型； (3) 对这些关系的影响 皮质内的同时可塑性以及前馈 突触，以及更现实的突触可塑性模型 竞争是由最近的实验工作激发的。 在所有这些 研究，目标是描述不同可能的特征 可能导致依赖活动的发展结果， 基于相关性的突触可塑性机制，并确定 实验上可测量和可操作的因素将决定 如果此类机制是发展的基础，则实际结果。 这将 为这样的假设的实验测试提供基础 研究现象背后的机制，并最终改进 相关的人类健康问题，如斜视、弱视和 视网膜病变。

DESCRIPTION (Adapted from applicant's abstract): Many aspects of the later stages of neural development are guided by neuronal activity. Guidance is given both by intrinsic patterns of activity, before and after birth, and by activity resulting from experience after birth. Theoretical studies will address the role of activity-dependent mechanisms in the development of the mammalian primary visual cortex. Such cortical mechanisms appear to play an important role in many aspects of human health, including visual disorders such as strabismus and amblyopia, as well as recovery and reorganization of visual function after retinal lesions. The theoretical studies will address the following specific questions in the development of the primary visual cortex: (1) The relationships that may develop between the maps of retinotopy, ocular dominance, orientation, disparity, and other cortical receptive field properties such as preferred spatial frequency and spatial phase, and the relationships among these properties that develop in individual receptive fields, when inputs of four types (ON-center and OFF-center from the left and right eyes) compete to innervate a two-dimensional cortical layer representing layer 4 of primary visual cortex; (2) The relationships that develop between the receptive fields of excitatory and inhibitory neurons when both types of neurons are included, with realistic connectivity, in the model of the layer 4 circuit; (3) The effects on these relationships of simultaneous plasticity of intracortical, as well as, feedforward synapses, and of more realistic models of synaptic plasticity and competition motivated by recent experimental work. In all of these studies, the goal will be to characterize the different possible developmental outcomes that may result under activity-dependent, correlation-based mechanisms of synaptic plasticity, and to determine the experimentally measurable and manipulable factors that will determine the actual outcome, if such mechanisms underlie development. This will provide a basis for experimental tests of the hypothesis that such mechanisms underlie the studied phenomena, and ultimately for improvements of related human health problems, such as strabismus, amblyopia, and retinal lesions.