Testing the roles of rat parietal and frontal cortices in a sensory decision task

测试大鼠顶叶和额叶皮质在感觉决策任务中的作用

• 批准号: 8524467
• 负责人: Timothy D. Hanks
• 金额: $ 5.39万
• 依托单位: PRINCETON UNIVERSITY
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2013
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2013-12-01 至 2016-11-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/8524467
• 关键词: Affect; Animal Model; Area; Auditory; Behavioral Paradigm; Brain; Brain Part; Decision Making; Disease; Environment; Future; Goals; Individual; Left; Measures; Mental Depression; Modeling; Neurons; Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder; Parietal Lobe; Performance; Play; Process; Publishing; Rattus; Research; Role; Schizophrenia; Scientist; Sensory; Structure; Task Performances; Testing; Thinking; Time; Training; base; cognitive neuroscience; evidence base; frontal lobe; motor control; network models; neuromechanism; neurophysiology; public health relevance; relating to nervous system; research study; response

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): A central goal of cognitive neuroscience is to elucidate the neural processes that underlie decision making. Even simple decisions often rely on deliberation that extends in time beyond the immediate sensory environment. Thus, the brain requires mechanisms that allow information to combine over time during the deliberative process. This project aims to exploit a recently developed rat-based model of deliberative decision-making to study the neural process that underlies accumulation of evidence and decision commitment. The Brody lab has been able to train rats to perform the Poisson Clicks Accumulation task, where rats make a decision based on comparing the number of auditory clicks presented on two speakers, one to the left of the rat, the other to its right. It has been shown that rats temporally integrate the sensory evidence provided by the clicks to perform this task. We plan to test the extent to which two candidate areas of the rat brain -- the frontal orienting fields (FOF) and posterior parietal cortex (PPC) -- play a role in sensory evidence-based decision making. To do this, we will reversibly inactivate each area separately while rats perform the Poisson Clicks Accumulation task and measure the effect on performance. We will then test whether neurons in these areas represent quantities related to the accumulation of evidence and decision commitment in their responses by recording neural activity during performance of the task. Finally, we will explore the extent to which these areas play similar or different roles using a network model of the decision process. Fulfillment of the aims of this project would further our understanding of the neural processes that underlie decision making and also develop the rat as a model organism for future studies of these questions. Understanding these brain processes is a key step towards developing targeted, principled treatments for disorders of higher brain function.

描述(由申请人提供)：认知神经科学的中心目标是阐明作为决策基础的神经过程。即使是简单的决定，也往往依赖于深思熟虑，这种深思熟虑在时间上超出了直接的感觉环境。因此，大脑需要在审议过程中允许信息随着时间的推移进行组合的机制。该项目旨在利用最近开发的基于老鼠的审议决策模型来研究作为证据积累和决策承诺基础的神经过程。布罗迪实验室已经能够训练大鼠执行泊松点击累积任务，在这项任务中，大鼠根据比较两个扬声器上出现的听觉点击的数量做出决定，一个在老鼠的左边，另一个在老鼠的右边。已有研究表明，大鼠在时间上整合了滴答声提供的感觉证据来执行这项任务。我们计划测试大鼠大脑的两个候选区域--额叶定向区域(FOF)和后顶叶皮质(PPC)--在基于感觉证据的决策中发挥作用的程度。要做到这一点，我们将可逆地分别停用每个区域，同时大鼠执行泊松点击累积任务，并测量对性能的影响。然后，我们将通过记录任务执行期间的神经活动来测试这些区域的神经元是否代表与证据积累和决策承诺相关的数量。最后，我们将使用决策过程的网络模型来探索这些领域在多大程度上扮演着相似或不同的角色。这个项目的目标的实现将进一步加深我们对作为决策基础的神经过程的理解，并将大鼠发展为未来研究这些问题的模式生物。了解这些大脑过程是开发有针对性的、有原则的治疗高级大脑功能障碍的关键一步。