Temporal Strategies in Visual Cortex

描述（由申请人提供）：行为取决于外部环境和受试者如何解释该环境。解释的一个因素是过去的经验：受试者使用过去的经验来预测感官事件并计划适当的运动动作。初步研究结果表明，视觉皮层的感觉信号是根据行为相关事件的预期进行调制的。本实验探讨了任务预期对视觉信息加工和视觉引导行为规划的影响。动物将在固定时间的任务中接受训练，以鼓励形成和使用特定的时间策略。同时进行的神经记录和行为测量将揭示这些策略如何影响行为表现以及表现背后的神经信号。这些研究有三个具体目标。在第一个具体的目标中，将在已经在运动检测任务中训练的动物中研究策略对感觉处理的影响，在该运动检测任务中，通过一致的和周期性的概率函数来确定运动外观。在第二个具体目标中，将在动物身上研究策略对运动规划的影响，这些动物已经被训练在没有感觉线索的情况下产生规则的眼球运动。在第三个具体目标中，通过比较执行这些任务期间附近细胞的响应来研究策略相关信号的性质和分布。由于这些研究解决了由于训练而形成的内部任务表征，因此这些实验将为获得知识的神经元表征提供有价值的信息。此外，通过阐明在正常行为期间如何使用和实施策略，这些研究可以为开发各种学习和认知障碍的治疗方法提供重要信息。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Behavior depends on both the external environment and how subjects interpret that environment. One factor in that interpretation is past experience: subjects use past experience to anticipate sensory events and plan appropriate motor actions. Preliminary findings suggest that sensory signals in visual cortex are modulated according to the anticipation of behaviorally relevant events. The proposed experiments explore the effects of task anticipation on the processing of visual information and the planning of visually guided behaviors. Animals will be trained in tasks with fixed timings to encourage the formation and use of a specific temporal strategy. Simultaneous neural recording and behavioral measurements will reveal how these strategies affect behavioral performance and the neuronal signals underlying that performance. These studies have three specific aims. In the first specific aim, the effect of strategies on sensory processing will be studied in animals that have been trained in a motion detection task in which motion appearance is determined, by a consistent and periodic probability function. In the second specific aim, the effect of strategies on motor planning will be studied in animals that have been trained to produce regular eye movements in the absence of sensory cues. In the third specific aim, the nature and distribution of strategy related signals would be studied by comparing the responses of nearby cells during the performance of these tasks. Because these studies address internal task representations that have formed as a consequence of training, the experiments will provide valuable information on the neuronal representation of acquired knowledge. Additionally, by elucidating how strategies are used and implemented during normal behavior, these studies could provide important information for the development of treatments for a variety of learning and cognitive disorders.