Quantitative Studies of Centeral Visual Development

描述（由申请人提供）：我们的研究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元机制。我们提出实验，以探索在功能视觉方面的发展的神经生物学。我们将研究猕猴，因为它的视觉系统与我们的大体相似，因为它卓越的行为能力使我们能够进行广泛而详细的行为测量，这在人类研究中是不可能的，因为它适合于生物实验，可以直接测试关于潜在大脑功能的发育假设。1)我们将研究分析全局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中的作用。我们将验证MT中模式敏感细胞的特性和动力学限制了整体运动感知，而成分敏感细胞的特性和动力学限制了基于运动的眼跟随的假设。2)我们将从两个层面研究形式视觉机制的发展，一个是以纹理定义的形式信息处理为代表的中层，另一个是以玻璃图案感知为代表的高层，这是一个大家庭的整体形式刺激。我们将使用发展数据来检验V2限制表单信息处理的假设。最近对人类弱视的研究表明，双目视觉在这种疾病的发展中起着关键作用。因此，我们将使用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结合起来，以产生运动感知。这种对双目机制的生理学和发展的新方法将为双目的发展与形式视觉的发展之间的关系提供信息。我们的实验将给出统一的描述生理和行为过程，其发展支持成人高水平视觉的重要组成部分。它们将为探索产生弱视家族视觉缺陷的发育异常提供基础。此外，通过研究复杂感知能力和视觉皮层在V1之后的发展，他们将为区域间和区域内皮层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.