Neural development of foveal vision

项目摘要 了解大脑如何处理我们从视觉凝视的中心（中央凹视觉）看到的东西， 对维持健康视力至关重要，包括高空间敏锐度视力、色觉和视觉注意力。 中央视觉的缺陷导致失明，如黄斑变性，或深度知觉的丧失 如在弱视（Amblyopia）的情况下。猕猴的视觉系统与人类非常相似， 是研究中心凹视觉的理想动物模型。在出生后的最初几个月里， 在猕猴的发育和人类生命的最初几年，视网膜光感受器经历 一个重要的迁移，以建立成年中央凹锥和杆分布。尽管这很重要 作为视觉的一部分，在发育过程中关于中央凹的皮质表征知之甚少。 在这里，我们调查出生后视网膜感光细胞迁移和中央凹的变化之间的关系， 婴儿猴子的皮质表征。使用体内视网膜光感受器成像和 皮质光学成像和电生理方法，我们的目标是回答有关的问题， 视网膜视锥细胞迁移与黄斑中心凹皮质表征变化的关系 出生后的最初几个月。将在前3个月内研究多个发育时间点 出生后的几个月，这是一个可以用自适应光学绘制中央凹锥体密度的时期。配对视网膜和 将进行皮质研究并关联数据。关于皮质激素作用机制的启示 发育过程中的可塑性将对理解中央视觉的发育产生重大影响， 皮质发育的计算模型，以及理解视觉的视网膜和皮质基础 发育障碍，这可能会导致新的方法来治疗神经系统疾病，如弱视， 提高脑机接口治疗失明的能力。

PROJECT SUMMARY Understanding how the brain processes what we see from the very center of our visual gaze (foveal vision) is essential for maintaining healthy vision, including high spatial acuity vision, color vision, and visual attention. Deficits of central vision lead to blindness as in the case of macular degeneration, or loss of depth perception as in the case of lazy eye (amblyopia). Macaque monkeys have visual systems very similar to humans and thus are an ideal animal model for studies of foveal vision. During the first few months of postnatal development in the macaque monkey and first few years of life in the human, retinal photoreceptors undergo an important migration to establish the adult foveal cone and rod distribution. Despite the importance of this part of vision, there is very little known regarding cortical representation of the fovea during development. Here, we investigate the relationship between postnatal retinal photoreceptor migration and changes in foveal cortical representation in infant monkeys. Using a combination of in vivo retinal photoreceptor imaging and cortical optical imaging and electrophysiological approaches, we aim to answer questions regarding the relationship between retinal cone photoreceptor migration and changes in foveal cortical representation in the first few months of postnatal development. Multiple developmental timepoints will be studied over the first 3 postnatal months, a period when foveal cone density can be mapped with adaptive optics. Paired retinal and cortical investigation will be conducted and data correlated. Revelations regarding the mechanisms of cortical plasticity during development will have great impact on understanding the development of central vision, computational models of cortical development, and on understanding retinal and cortical bases of visual developmental disorders which may lead to new approaches to treat neurological diseases like amblyopia and improve capabilities of brain-machine interfaces for the treatment of blindness.