Associative Mechanisms of Spatial Cognition

空间认知的联想机制

• 批准号: 7526539
• 负责人: AARON Paul BLAISDELL
• 金额: $ 22.77万
• 依托单位: UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2008
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2008-06-01 至 2012-05-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/7526539
• 关键词: Alzheimer' s Disease; Animals; Attention; Behavior; Behavioral; Cognition; Cognitive; Columbidae; Complex; Disease; Elements; Environment; Event; Exhibits; Food; Funding; Goals; Hand; Human; Huntington Disease; Impairment; Investigation; Lead; Link; Literature; Location; Maps; Memory; Metric; Operant Conditioning; Parkinson Disease; Patients; Play; Pliability; Procedures; Process; Property; Psyche structure; Psychology; Public Health; Rattus; Reading; Research; Role; Route; Sensory; Signal Transduction; Spatial Behavior; Time; Training; Visual; Work; classical conditioning; concept; conditioning; cooking; endophenotype; experience; novel; preconditioning; research study; sequence learning; spatial integration; spatial relationship; touchscreen

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Although there is a large body of literature about the use of spatial maps, very little is known about the acquisition processes involved in building spatial maps. This project explores the mechanisms underlying the acquisition and expression of spatial maps. Spatial maps are internal allocentric representations of Euclidean space that encode the metric properties of objects and their spatial relationships to each other and the surrounding framework. We will use operant conditioning tasks on the touch screen and in an automated open field, both procedures which were developed in our lab to study spatial acquisition processes in pigeons. The experiments are theoretically motivated by the hypothesis that associative acquisition processes serves as the mechanism for the encoding and expression of spatial relationships. This hypothesis has received strong support during the prior period of funding. In particular, we have found that the encoding of the spatial map between a landmark and a hidden goal obeys the rules of associative acquisition. Furthermore, higher-order associative conditioning plays an important role in the integration of maps among a set of landmarks and goals. This research has important implications for certain disorders that exhibit different types of impairments in spatial cognition. Parkinson's disease patients, for example, have difficulty integrating spatial and temporal sequences of events which leads to impairments in planned, organized behavior. Patients suffering from Alzheimer's disease, on the other hand, show a selective impairment in tasks that utilize allocentric representations of space. Patients with Huntington's disease show a third type of spatial deficit - impaired object-location memory. We hope to use the proposed pigeon procedures to disentangle and define these different aspects of spatial cognition, which could lead to a better characterization of these behavioral deficits. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: This research has important implications for disorders that exhibit different types of impairments in spatial cognition. Parkinson's disease patients, for example, show deficits in spatially organized behavior, while Alzheimer's disease patients have difficulty utilizing mental maps of space, and patients with Huntington's disease show impairments of object-location memory. The proposed research will help disentangle and define these different aspects of spatial cognition, which could help us to better understand these behavioral deficits.

描述（由申请人提供）：尽管有大量关于空间地图使用的文献，但人们对构建空间地图所涉及的采集过程知之甚少。该项目探讨了空间地图获取和表达的机制。空间地图是欧几里得空间的内部异心表示，它对对象的度量属性及其彼此之间以及周围框架的空间关系进行编码。我们将在触摸屏上和自动开放场地中使用操作性条件反射任务，这两个程序都是我们实验室开发的，用于研究鸽子的空间获取过程。这些实验在理论上是基于这样的假设：联想习得过程是空间关系编码和表达的机制。这一假设在前期资助期间得到了强有力的支持。特别是，我们发现地标和隐藏目标之间的空间图的编码遵循关联获取的规则。此外，高阶联想调节在一组地标和目标之间的地图整合中发挥着重要作用。这项研究对于某些表现出不同类型空间认知障碍的疾病具有重要意义。例如，帕金森病患者很难整合事件的空间和时间顺序，这会导致有计划、有组织的行为受损。另一方面，患有阿尔茨海默病的患者在利用异中心空间表征的任务中表现出选择性障碍。亨廷顿病患者表现出第三种空间缺陷——物体位置记忆受损。我们希望使用所提出的鸽子程序来解开和定义空间认知的这些不同方面，这可以更好地表征这些行为缺陷。公共卫生相关性：这项研究对于表现出不同类型的空间认知障碍的疾病具有重要意义。例如，帕金森病患者表现出空间组织行为缺陷，而阿尔茨海默病患者难以利用心理空间图，亨廷顿病患者则表现出物体位置记忆障碍。拟议的研究将有助于理清和定义空间认知的这些不同方面，这可以帮助我们更好地理解这些行为缺陷。