The inferior pulvinar and visual attention

下丘脑和视觉注意力

• 批准号: 7057630
• 负责人: CHRISTIN H MCCOOL
• 金额: $ 2.99万
• 依托单位: UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT DAVIS
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2006
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2006-01-01 至 2007-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/7057630
• 关键词: Macaca mulatta; attention; behavioral /social science research tag; brain electrical activity; brain imaging /visualization /scanning; brain mapping; electrostimulus; neuropsychology; performance; predoctoral investigator; pulvinar thalami; sensory discrimination; stimulus /response; visual cortex; visual perception; visual tracking

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The pulvinar nucleus is richly interconnected with most of visual cortex, leading many to propose a visual role for this enigmatic part of the brain. However, little is known about its role in visual processing. On the basis of lesion, imaging, and recording studies, it has been proposed that pulvinar plays a role in directing visual attention to particular regions of space. In the proposed experiments, we plan to directly examine this hypothesis using electrical microstimulation and reversible inactivation. We will measure both visual detection performance and neuronal responses in extrastriate cortex, with and without perturbation. The detection task will be of a change in motion direction, and we already know that cortical area MT is involved in this kind of perceptual capability. The design allows two distinct comparisons to be made, each critical to this hypothesis. First, we know that directed attention produces behavioral benefits and local changes in the gain of response of extrastriate neurons; activation of pulvinar should mimic this change and reversible inactivation should eliminate it. Also, we will be able to conclude whether the effects measured perceptually could be mediated through known cortical circuits supporting visual discrimination.

描述（由申请人提供）：枕核与大部分视觉皮层有着丰富的相互联系，导致许多人提出大脑的这个神秘部分的视觉作用。然而，人们对其在视觉处理中的作用知之甚少。根据病变、成像和记录研究，有人提出枕点在将视觉注意力引导到特定空间区域方面发挥着作用。在拟议的实验中，我们计划使用电微刺激和可逆失活直接检验这一假设。我们将在有或没有扰动的情况下测量纹外皮层的视觉检测性能和神经元反应。检测任务将是运动方向的变化，我们已经知道皮质区MT参与了这种感知能力。该设计允许进行两个不同的比较，每个比较都对该假设至关重要。首先，我们知道定向注意力会产生行为益处以及纹状神经元反应增益的局部变化； pulvinar 的激活应该模仿这种变化，而可逆的失活应该消除它。此外，我们将能够得出结论，感知测量的效果是否可以通过支持视觉辨别的已知皮层回路来调节。