Quantitative Studies of Centeral Visual Development

描述(申请人提供)：我们研究的目标是揭示限制人类和非人类灵长类动物视觉表现发展的神经机制。我们建议进行实验，从功能视觉的角度探索发育的神经生物学。我们之所以会研究猕猴，是因为它的视觉系统与我们人类的视觉系统基本相似，因为它出众的行为能力使我们能够进行广泛而详细的行为测量，而这在人类研究中是不可能的，还因为它适合进行生物实验，因此可以直接测试有关大脑潜在功能的发育假说。1)我们将研究分析全球运动信号的机制的发展，包括它们的感知作用和它们在控制眼球运动方面的作用。我们将检验这一假设，即MT中模式敏感细胞的属性和动力学限制了全局运动知觉，而成分敏感细胞的属性和动力学限制了基于运动的眼球跟踪。2)我们将在两个水平上研究形状视觉机制的发展，其中一个水平是以纹理定义的形式信息的加工为代表的，另一个水平是以玻璃图案的感知为代表的，玻璃图案是一个大的全球形式刺激家族。我们将使用发育数据来检验V2限制表格信息处理的假设。3)最近对人类弱视的研究表明，双眼视觉在这种疾病中起着关键的发育作用。因此，我们将使用一项运动整合任务来研究双眼功能的发展，该任务要求大脑将传递给每只眼睛的静止闪烁刺激组合起来，以产生运动感知。这一研究双目机制生理学和发展的新方法将提供有关双目视觉发展和双目视觉发展之间关系的信息。我们的实验将统一描述生理和行为过程，这些过程的发展支持成人高级视觉的重要组成部分。它们将为探索导致弱视家族视觉缺陷的发育异常提供基础。此外，通过研究复杂知觉能力和V1以外的视觉皮质的发展，他们将对大脑皮质间和皮层内回路的发展提供新的见解。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The goal of our research is to uncover the neuronal mechanisms that limit the development of visual performance in humans and nonhuman primates. We propose experiments to explore the neurobiology of development in functional visual terms. We will study the macaque monkey because its visual system is substantially similar to our own, because its exceptional behavioral abilities permit us to make extensive and detailed behavioral measurements that are impossible in human studies, and because its suitability for biological experiments permits developmental hypotheses about underlying brain functions to be tested directly. 1) We will study the development of mechanisms that analyze global motion signals, both in terms of their perceptual role and in terms of their role in controlling eye movements. We will test the hypothesis that the properties and dynamics of pattern sensitive cells in MT limit global motion perception, while the properties and dynamics of component sensitive cells limit motion-based ocular following. 2) We will study the development of form vision mechanisms at two levels, a middle level represented by the processing of form information defined by texture, and a higher level represented by the perception of Glass patterns, a large family of global form stimuli. We will use developmental data to test the hypothesis that V2 limits the processing of form information. 3) Recent studies of human amblyopes suggest that binocular vision plays a key developmental role in this disorder. We will therefore study the development of binocular function using a motion integration task that requires the brain to combine stationary flickering stimuli delivered to each eye to generate a motion percept. This novel approach to the physiology and development of binocular mechanisms will provide information about the relationship between the development of binocularity and the development of form vision. Our experiments will give unified descriptions of the physiological and behavioral processes whose development supports important components of adult high-level vision. They will provide the foundation for exploring developmental abnormalities that produce the family of visual deficits known as amblyopia. In addition, by studying the development of complex perceptual abilities and of visual cortex beyond V1, they will give new insights into the development of inter- and intra-areal cortical circuits.