Functional Imaging of the Human FEF

人类 FEF 的功能成像

• 批准号: 8187444
• 负责人: CLAYTON E CURTIS
• 金额: $ 36.78万
• 依托单位: NEW YORK UNIVERSITY
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2006
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2006-04-05 至 2013-02-28
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/8187444
• 关键词: Area; Attention; Brain; Clinical; Cognition; Data; Databases; Diagnosis; Dimensions; Discipline; Disease; Functional Imaging; Functional disorder; Goals; Hand; Human; Individual Differences; Influentials; Knowledge; Lead; Location; Maps; Measures; Memory; Mental disorders; Methods; Mission; Modeling; Motor; Nature; Neuroanatomy; Outcome; Parietal Lobe; Pattern; Perception; Prefrontal Cortex; Process; Psyche structure; Public Health; Reading; Research; Research Personnel; Saccades; Sensory; Signal Transduction; Specificity; System; Testing; Visual; Visual Cortex; Visual Fields; Visual system structure; Work; base; combat; executive function; extrastriate visual cortex; flexibility; frontal eye fields; frontal lobe; innovation; insight; nervous system disorder; neural patterning; neuropathology; novel; novel strategies; research study; sensorimotor system; stem; theories

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Despite the widespread appreciation that the prefrontal cortex (PFC) is necessary for flexible action and efficient perception, there is a fundamental gap in understanding the control mechanisms by which it accomplishes these goals. This gap in knowledge is a critical problem because a host of psychiatric and neurologic disorders stem from a primary dysfunction of executive control. The long-term goal is to understand the mechanisms by which the PFC exerts control over motor and sensory systems. The objective of the current proposal is to test a new model of how activity in the PFC forms maps of prioritized space that tag salient and relevant locations in the visual field, which can then be used as the basis of executive control signals. The mechanisms of bias are likely to involve mechanisms used for saccade planning. The central aim of the project is to test the extent to which the patterns of neural activity in the human PFC are consistent with predictions from the priority map theory, including the functional organization of priority maps, the nature of what is prioritized, and the effects of read-out of priority maps. The rationale for the proposed research is that a better understanding of how the PFC exerts control will lead to a strong theoretical framework within which strategies for the understanding of mental disease will develop. The objective will be to test, refine, and possibly refute, tenets of the priority map theory which will be accomplished by pursuing three specific aims: 1) Identify candidate areas in frontal cortex that show the hallmark feature of priority maps - a spatial topographic organization; 2) Test if activity in candidate priority maps is a fundamental and general mechanism used by a variety of spatial cognitions; and 3) Determine how the read out of priority maps sculpts activity in early visual cortex. Strong preliminary data demonstrate the feasibility of project aims in the applicant's hands. Under aim 1, two candidate priority maps were identified in PFC using novel and optimized topographical mapping approaches. Under aim 2, both delay period activity and multivariate patterns of brain activity in candidate priority maps were remarkably similar, if not interchangeable, across a variety of spatial cognition tasks (e.g., memory, attention, planning). Under aim 3, spatially specific persistent activity in candidate priority maps was concomitant with activity in retinotopically matched early visual areas (i.e., V1, V2, V3) suggesting that activity in candidate priority maps guides visual selection via its biasing of activity in early visual areas. The approach is innovative because it is highly programmatic; uses novel approaches to combat individual differences in the functional neuroanatomy of the PFC; and it uses powerful new analytic methods in creative ways to rigorously test key hypotheses. The proposed research is significant because it is expected to test an important new model of executive control and will provide a detailed understanding of the mechanisms by which the human PFC exerts control, such that models of dysfunction of these mechanisms can be targeted as the causes of and potential treatments for neuropathology. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: The proposed research is relevant to public health because advancement in our understanding of the mechanisms by which the prefrontal cortex exerts executive control in the normal brain is necessary to illuminate the mechanisms that could go awry in the pathological brain. Specifically, the proposed research is relevant to NIH's mission because is expected to advance a stronger theoretical framework within which clinical researchers can develop strategies for the diagnosis and treatment of psychiatric and neurologic disorders.

描述（由申请人提供）：尽管人们普遍认为前额叶皮层（PFC）是灵活行动和有效感知所必需的，但在理解其实现这些目标的控制机制方面存在根本性的差距。这种知识上的差距是一个关键问题，因为许多精神和神经疾病都源于执行控制的原发性功能障碍。长期目标是了解PFC控制运动和感觉系统的机制。目前的建议的目的是测试一个新的模型，在PFC的活动如何形成优先空间的地图，标记显着的和相关的位置在视野中，然后可以用作执行控制信号的基础。偏见的机制可能涉及用于扫视规划的机制。该项目的主要目的是测试人类PFC中的神经活动模式与优先图理论的预测一致的程度，包括优先图的功能组织，优先顺序的性质以及优先图读出的影响。拟议的研究的理由是，更好地了解PFC如何发挥控制作用将导致一个强大的理论框架，在这个框架内，理解精神疾病的战略将发展。本研究的目的是检验、提炼并可能反驳优先图理论的原则，这将通过追求三个具体目标来实现：1）识别额叶皮层中显示优先图的标志性特征的候选区域-空间地形组织; 2）检验候选优先图中的活动是否是各种空间认知所使用的基本和一般机制;以及3）确定优先级图的读出如何塑造早期视觉皮层的活动。强有力的初步数据证明了申请人手中的项目目标的可行性。根据目标1，两个候选人的优先地图被确定在PFC使用新的和优化的地形映射方法。在目标2下，候选优先级图中的延迟期活动和大脑活动的多变量模式在各种空间认知任务（例如，记忆力、注意力、计划）。在目标3下，候选优先级图中的空间特异性持续活动伴随着视网膜定位匹配的早期视觉区域中的活动（即，V1，V2，V3），表明候选优先级地图中的活动通过其在早期视觉区域中的活动的偏置来引导视觉选择。该方法是创新的，因为它是高度程序化的;使用新颖的方法来对抗PFC功能神经解剖学中的个体差异;它以创造性的方式使用强大的新分析方法来严格测试关键假设。拟议的研究是重要的，因为它预计将测试一个重要的新模型的执行控制，并将提供一个详细的了解机制，其中人类PFC施加控制，使这些机制的功能障碍的模型可以有针对性的原因和潜在的治疗神经病理学。 公共卫生关系：这项拟议中的研究与公共卫生有关，因为我们对前额叶皮层在正常大脑中实施执行控制的机制的理解的进步对于阐明病理大脑中可能出错的机制是必要的。具体来说，拟议的研究是相关的NIH的使命，因为预计将推进一个更强大的理论框架，临床研究人员可以制定战略，诊断和治疗精神和神经系统疾病。