Distributed Cortical Processing in Visual Working Memory

视觉工作记忆中的分布式皮层处理

• 批准号: 8068780
• 负责人: Steven L Bressler
• 金额: $ 34.84万
• 依托单位: MONTANA STATE UNIVERSITY - BOZEMAN
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2009
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2009-08-12 至 2014-04-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/8068780
• 关键词: Address; Alzheimer' s Disease; Area; Attention; Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder; Autistic Disorder; Behavior; Behavioral; Brain; Cognition; Color; Cortical Synchronization; Cues; Data; Diagnosis; Diagnostic; Disease; Exploratory/Developmental Grant for Diagnostic Cancer Imaging; Goals; Health; Human; Impaired cognition; Inferior; Information Retrieval; Knowledge; Lead; Macaca; Maintenance; Measurement; Measures; Mediating; Memory; Microelectrodes; Monitor; Monkeys; Neurons; Parietal; Parietal Lobe; Pattern; Perception; Play; Population; Process; Research; Retrieval; Role; Sampling; Schizophrenia; Shapes; Short-Term Memory; Signal Transduction; Stimulus; Temporal Lobe; Testing; Training; Variant; Visual; active control; base; extrastriate visual cortex; improved; insight; neuroimaging; neuromechanism; neuropsychiatry; nonhuman primate; oculomotor; operation; relating to nervous system; research study; response; sensorimotor system; spatiotemporal; theories; therapy development; visual information

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The goal of the proposed research is to advance our understanding of the storage, maintenance, and retrieval of information in visual working memory. Our guiding hypothesis is that these functions involve the synchronous, and causal, interactions of neuronal populations located in prefrontal, posterior parietal, and inferior temporal cortical regions. Our research plan, based on an extensive body of preliminary studies supported by a previous R21 award, consists of two sets of experiments addressing three specific aims. In the first experiment, we will train macaque monkeys to perform an oculomotor delayed match-to-sample task in which memory load will be manipulated by changes in task duration and the inclusion of distractors. This study will enable us to test specific hypotheses regarding the neural mechanisms mediating the storage and maintenance of information in visual working memory. In the second experiment, another set of monkeys will be trained to perform a delayed match-to-sample task in which they must actively retrieve either the shape or the color of a sample object following a rule-based cue. This experiment will enable us to test specific hypotheses regarding the neural mechanisms mediating the active retrieval of information from visual working memory. In both experiments, we will perform long-term measurements of neuronal activity (i.e. unit activity and local field potentials) from up to 32 independently movable microelectrodes in prefrontal, posterior parietal, and inferior temporal cortical areas while the monkeys perform the behavioral tasks. Once the data are collected, we will apply a comprehensive battery of statistical analyses to test specific hypotheses regarding the storage, maintenance and retrieval of information in visual working memory. These analyses will characterize the spatiotemporal statistical relations between groups of simultaneously recorded neurons, between neurons and local field potentials, and between local field potentials. The results will allow us to test hypotheses concerning the synchronous neuronal interactions that occur both within and between cortical areas in support of visual working memory function. We anticipate that the proposed studies will produce new insights into the dynamics of synchronous activity thought to underlie the representation and utilization of visual information in working memory. The knowledge gained from these studies will provide an important framework for understanding synchronous functional relations in the brain that may be important in the diagnosis of pathological conditions, such as Alzheimer's disease, autism, and schizophrenia, in which these relations have already been demonstrated to be deficient. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Disturbances of attention and working memory, and the changes in synchronous cortical activity that accompany them, are a hallmark of human psychiatric conditions including Alzheimer's disease, Autism, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, and Schizophrenia. Analyses of disturbances in cortico-cortical synchronization hold the promise of providing critical diagnostic measures for a wide variety of cognitive disturbances. Hence, an improved understanding of the neural mechanisms mediating working memory and the task-dependent synchronization of cortical activity will have a significant impact on the development of treatments for a wide variety of neuropsychiatric disorders.

描述(申请人提供)：本研究的目的是促进我们对视觉工作记忆中信息的存储、维护和提取的理解。我们的指导性假设是，这些功能涉及位于前额叶、顶叶后和颞叶下部皮质区域的神经元群体的同步和因果相互作用。我们的研究计划基于先前R21奖项支持的广泛的初步研究，包括两组实验，旨在实现三个具体目标。在第一个实验中，我们将训练猕猴执行一项眼球运动延迟匹配到样本的任务，在该任务中，记忆负荷将受到任务持续时间的变化和干扰因素的影响。这项研究将使我们能够检验关于调节视觉工作记忆中信息存储和维护的神经机制的具体假设。在第二个实验中，另一组猴子将被训练来执行延迟的匹配到样本的任务，在这个任务中，它们必须按照基于规则的提示主动提取样本对象的形状或颜色。这项实验将使我们能够测试关于从视觉工作记忆中主动提取信息的神经机制的具体假设。在这两个实验中，我们将在猴子执行行为任务时，从多达32个独立可移动的微电极上对猴子进行长期神经元活动(即单位活动和局部场电位)的测量，这些微电极位于前额叶、后顶叶和颞叶下部皮质区域。一旦收集到数据，我们将应用一系列全面的统计分析来测试关于视觉工作记忆中信息的存储、维护和提取的具体假设。这些分析将表征同时记录的神经元组之间、神经元与局部场电位之间、以及局部场电位之间的时空统计关系。这些结果将使我们能够测试关于皮层内和皮层之间发生的同步神经元相互作用的假说，以支持视觉工作记忆功能。我们期望所提出的研究将对同步活动思维的动力学产生新的见解，从而为工作记忆中视觉信息的表征和利用奠定基础。从这些研究中获得的知识将为理解大脑中的同步功能关系提供一个重要的框架，这些关系在阿尔茨海默病、自闭症和精神分裂症等病理疾病的诊断中可能很重要，在这些疾病中，这些关系已经被证明是不足的。与公共健康相关：注意力和工作记忆障碍，以及伴随它们的同步皮质活动的变化，是包括阿尔茨海默病、自闭症、注意力缺陷多动障碍和精神分裂症在内的人类精神疾病的标志。对皮质-皮质同步障碍的分析有望为各种认知障碍提供关键的诊断手段。因此，更好地理解调节工作记忆的神经机制和任务相关的皮质活动同步将对开发各种神经精神障碍的治疗方法产生重大影响。