The influence of eye movements on visual cortical processing through the entrainm

描述（由申请人提供）：灵长类动物通过刻板的眼球运动积极地对视觉环境进行采样，主要包括被称为扫视的大跳跃。扫视通常每秒发生几次，并且快速地将注视位置重定向到视觉场景中的感兴趣区域。尽管眼动在选择和构建视觉输入中具有根本的重要性，但它们在视觉处理中的功能作用仍然知之甚少。事实上，扫视对初级视觉皮层（V1）神经元的活动有很强的影响，就像任何导致视觉输入突然变化的刺激一样。除了观察到V1神经元本身受到扫视和类似扫视的视觉输入的强烈驱动外，最近的几项研究表明，扫视也会引起刻板的网络活动模式，包括正在进行的皮层网络振荡的夹带。这些网络振荡反映了皮质神经元兴奋性的节律性调节，并且被认为在认知功能和视觉感知中起重要作用。这表明扫视在塑造神经元处理过程中有直接和间接的作用，通过控制视觉输入和创建塑造这种信息处理的网络活动。然而，解开这些对神经活动的多重影响需要实验条件，既可以再现眼球运动对网络的影响，又可以在这种情况下研究神经元刺激处理。因此，拟议中的研究将研究扫视如何调节皮层网络活动，以及这种网络活动如何反过来调节刺激处理。这些问题将使用多电极阵列记录在清醒的灵长类动物利用有针对性的刺激设计和新的功能建模方法进行检查。通过建立V1神经元如何响应与眼动和模拟眼动有关的视觉输入的模型，可以直接测量眼跳的调制及其对视觉处理的影响。这项研究将首先检查扫视的作用，以及扫视样刺激在皮层网络振荡的夹带和同步。其次，这项研究将确定如何眼跳夹带网络活动调节刺激处理的个别神经元。这项工作将为皮层网络活动如何塑造感觉处理提供关键见解，并将解决有关眼睛运动在自然观看过程中视觉处理中的作用的基本问题。理解这些问题对于将视觉感知与皮层神经元和网络的活动联系起来非常重要。此外，了解扫视如何结构神经活动和调节视觉处理将有重要的意义，神经修复的发展。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Primates actively sample the visual environment through stereotyped eye movements, primarily consisting of large jumps known as saccades. Saccades typically occur several times a second, and quickly redirect the gaze location to regions of interest in the visual scene. Despite the fundamental importance of eye movements in selecting and structuring the visual input, their functional role in visual processing remains poorly understood. Saccades in fact have a strong effect on the activity of neurons in the primary visual cortex (V1), as with any stimulus that results in sudden changes in the visual input. In addition to the observation that V1 neurons themselves are strongly driven by saccade and saccade-like visual input, several recent studies have shown that saccades also evoke stereotyped patterns of network activity, including the entrainment of ongoing cortical network oscillations. These network oscillations reflect rhythmic modulations of the excitability of corticl neurons, and are thought to play an important role in cognitive function and visual perception. This suggests that saccades have both direct and indirect roles in shaping neuronal processing, through both controlling the visual input and creating network activity that shapes this information processing. However, untangling these multiple effects on neural activity requires experimental conditions that can both reproduce the effects of eye movements on the network and allow the study of neuronal stimulus processing in this context. The proposed research will thus examine how saccades modulate cortical network activity, and how such network activity in turn modulates stimulus processing. These questions will be examined using multi-electrode array recordings in awake primates utilizing targeted stimulus design and novel functional modeling approaches. By developing models of how V1 neurons respond to visual input in relation to eye movements and simulated eye movements, the modulation by saccades and its effects on visual processing can be directly measured. The research will first examine the role of saccades, and saccade-like stimuli in the entrainment and synchronization of cortical network oscillations. Second, the research will determine how saccade- entrained network activity modulates the stimulus processing of individual neurons. This work will provide key insights into how cortical network activity shapes sensory processing, and will address fundamental questions about the role of eye movements in visual processing during natural viewing. An understanding of these issues will be important for linking visual perception to the activity of cortical neurons and networks. Furthermore, an understanding of how saccades structure neural activity and modulate visual processing will have important implications for the development of neural prosthetics.