MODELS OF CORRELATION BASED NEURAL DEVELOPMENT

描述（改编自申请人的摘要）： 神经发育的后期阶段由神经元活动指导。 指导是由内在的活动模式，之前和之后， 出生，以及出生后的经验所产生的活动。 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觉障碍， 视网膜脱离术后视功能的恢复和重组 病变 理论研究将解决以下具体问题 初级视皮层发育中的问题：（1） 视网膜病变地图、眼部地图之间可能存在的关系 优势、定向、差异和其他皮层感受野 诸如优选的空间频率和空间相位的特性，以及 这些特性之间的关系，发展在个人接受 字段，当输入四种类型时（从左侧开始居中和偏离中心 和右眼）竞争神经支配二维皮质层 代表初级视觉皮层的第4层;（2） 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包括在内时， 第四层电路的模型;（3）对这些关系的影响 皮质内的可塑性，以及前馈 突触，以及突触可塑性的更现实的模型， 最近的实验工作激发的竞争。 在所有这些 研究，目标将是表征不同的可能 在活动依赖下可能导致的发展结果， 突触可塑性的相关机制，并确定 实验上可测量和可操作的因素，将决定 如果这种机制是发展的基础，那么实际结果如何。 这将 提供了一个基础的实验测试的假设， 机制的基础上研究的现象，并最终为改善 相关的人类健康问题，如斜视，弱视， 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.