Gain modulation and functional architecture in the primate lateral geniculate nucleus

 描述(申请人提供)：丘脑的外侧膝状核(LGN)是处理来自视网膜的视觉信息并将这些信息发送到视觉皮质的关键结构。自20世纪60年代大卫·胡贝尔和托斯滕·威塞尔博士的开创性工作以来，我们对灵长类LGN的理解有所增长，但仍存在一些重大的知识空白。首先，对微小细胞层的非线性响应增益调制机制知之甚少。其次，对功能细胞类型的精细解剖结构的了解有限。将利用视觉刺激呈现和细胞外记录技术的最新进展来解决这些知识差距。这里进行的研究将检验这样的假设，即小细胞神经元具有非线性增益调制，并且功能细胞类型聚集在LGN板层内。这些结果将对我们理解早期视觉系统中的信息处理产生广泛的影响。

 DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN) in the thalamus is a structure critical for processing visual information from the retina and sending this information to the visual cortex. Our understanding of the primate LGN has grown since the seminal work of Drs. David Hubel and Torsten Wiesel in the 1960s, but some significant gaps in knowledge still exist. First, mechanisms of nonlinear response gain modulation in parvocellular cell layers are poorly understood. Second, there exists only limited knowledge of the fine anatomical structure of functional cell types. Recent advances in visual stimulus presentation and extracellular recording technology will be utilized to address these gaps in knowledge. The research performed here will test the hypotheses that parvocellular neurons have nonlinear gain modulation and that functional cell types are clustered within LGN laminae. The results will have broad impacts on our understanding of information processing in the early visual system.