NEURONAL ACTIVITY AND OPTICAL SIGNALS IN THE BRAIN

描述：(改编自《调查者摘要》) 拟议研究的目的是确定定量的 大脑皮层神经活动与本征光学的关系 信号(不需要使用染料的信号)。光学成像 大脑皮层的，尤其是内在光信号的 在过去的十年中广泛地探索了 大脑，尤指视觉皮质。一些已报道的结果是 令人惊讶的是，一些人仍然存在争议。 尽管这项技术的自然吸引力和它的广泛关注 结果吸引了人们，人们对此知之甚少 神经活动和本征光学信号之间的耦合，这 有几个组件。这些知识对于正确的解释是至关重要的 通过光学成像获得的活性和选择性图。 建议对以下问题进行调查：1)什么是 神经活动与光信号之间的定量关系？ 2)整个皮质的神经-视觉关系是否一致(各向同性)？3) 神经活动(棘波、突触活动)的哪些方面由 光信号？4)对光信号的贡献是什么 大脑皮层的各种功能或解剖细胞类型？ 这些研究的结果将允许对 不仅由光学成像获得的活度图，而且还由其他重要的 依赖于血流动力学过滤器的成像技术，如fMRI和PET， 现在不仅在研究中使用，而且在 临床实践。

DESCRIPTION: (Adapted from the Investigator's Abstract) The purpose of the proposed research is to determine the quantitative relationship between neural activity in the cortex and intrinsic optical signals (signals that do not require the application of dyes). Optical imaging of the cortex, especially of intrinsic optical signals, has been used extensively in the past decade to explore the functional organization in the brain, especially in the visual cortex. Some of the reported results have been surprising and some remain controversial. Despite the natural appeal of the technique and the wide attention that its results have attracted, very little is known in quantitative detail about the coupling between the neural activity and the intrinsic optical signal, which has several components. Such knowledge is crucial for the proper interpretation of the activity and selectivity selectivity maps obtained with optical imaging. An investigation of the following questions is proposed: 1) What is the quantitative relationship between the neural activity and the optical signal? 2) Is the neural-optical relationship uniform across the cortex (isotropic)? 3) What aspects of neural activity (spikes, synaptic activity) are represented by the optical signal? 4) What is the contribution to the optical signal of the various functional or anatomical cell types in the cortex? The results of these studies will allow a quantitative interpretation of activity maps obtained not only by optical imaging, but also by other important imaging technologies that rely on the hemodynamic filter, such as fMRI and PET, which are now used not only in research but also as diagnostic tools in clinical practice.