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。这种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对行为相关事件的预期而调节的。本实验旨在探讨任务预期对视觉信息加工和视觉引导行为规划的影响。动物将在固定时间内接受任务训练，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和表现背后的神经元信号。这些研究有三个具体目的。在第一个具体目标中，策略对感觉处理的影响将在经过运动检测任务训练的动物中进行研究，其中运动外观是由一致和周期性概率函数决定的。在第二个具体目标中，策略对运动规划的影响将在经过训练的动物身上进行研究，这些动物在没有感官提示的情况下会产生有规律的眼球运动。在第三个具体目标中，将通过比较这些任务执行过程中附近细胞的反应来研究策略相关信号的性质和分布。由于这些研究涉及作为训练结果而形成的内部任务表征，因此这些实验将为获得的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中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.