"Cortical control of facial expression production"

“皮质控制面部表情的产生”

• 批准号: 10406362
• 负责人: Geena Ianni
• 金额: $ 5.18万
• 依托单位: WEILL MEDICAL COLL OF CORNELL UNIV
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2020-05-04 至 2024-05-03
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10406362
• 关键词: Affective; Anatomy; Area; Behavior; Behavioral; Biological Models; Body part; Brain; Brain region; Categories; Cells; Characteristics; Clinical; Code; Communication; Complex; Data; Disease; Dissociation; Doctor of Philosophy; Electrodes; Emotions; Expressed Emotion; Face; Facial Expression; Facial Expression Perception; Facial Muscles; Facial nerve nucleus; Fellowship; Fill-It; Food; Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Goals; Human; Lateral; Life; Macaca; Magnetic Resonance; Maps; Measures; Medial; Mental disorders; Methodology; Methods; Monitor; Monkeys; Mood Disorders; Motivation; Motor; Motor Neurons; Movement; Muscle; National Institute of Mental Health; Neurons; Neuropsychology; Neurosciences; Outcome; Physicians; Population; Primates; Production; Property; Public Health; Research; Resolution; Schizophrenia; Scientist; Signal Transduction; Social Controls; Social Environment; Social Network; Social Well-Being; Societies; Specificity; Stereotyping; Stimulus; Suggestion; System; Testing; Time; Training; Universities; Update; Ursidae Family; Vocabulary; Volition; Well in self; Work; autism spectrum disorder; base; career; human data; innovation; medical schools; microstimulation; neural circuit; neural model; neuromechanism; neurophysiology; neuropsychiatric disorder; novel; peer; programs; receptive field; relating to nervous system; skills; social; social communication; spatiotemporal

Updated Project Summary: There is a fundamental gap in understanding how the brain produces social communication signals. Facial expressions are a vital social signal in societies, communicating internal affective state and valence of external stimuli. The continued existence of this gap is an important problem because until it is filled, it will be impossible to understand the neural principles that allow us to express emotions, exchange social information, and communicate with peers. Past work has been critically limited to properties of few cells in a single brain region. The recent discovery of the functional network for social communication signal production, when paired with multichannel electrode arrays, allows for simultaneous recordings from populations of cells which compose this distributed network. The long-term goal is to understand how the brain produces socially communicative acts. The overall objective is to elucidate how neural populations in discrete cortical areas control socially communicative facial movements. The central hypothesis is communicative facial movements are controlled by the coordinated activity of a set of functionally specific cortical regions, each containing cells with characteristic spatiotemporal receptive fields. The rationale is this proposal will determine the mechanisms of facial expression production from the level of single cells to cortical territories, enabling mechanistic study of socioemotional expression and its deficit. The hypothesis will be tested by pursuing three specific aims: 1) determine single-cell contributions to facial movement in different nodes of facial expression production network, 2) determine the functional specificity of different nodes of the facial expression production network, and 3) determine whether or not facial expressions result from discrete cortical states. Under the first and third aims, multichannel electrode arrays targeted to fMRI-localized regions will measure the simultaneous activity of neurons across multiple regions of the facial expression production network during socially communicative behavior. In Aim 2, the applicant will use these arrays to deliver intracortical microstimulation in order to causally determine each region’s functional specificity. The proposed research is innovative as it combines two cutting-edge neurophysiological methods in a novel model system of social communication to generate the first mechanistic descriptions of the cortical control of facial expressions. This research is significant because it 1) produces a mechanistic understanding from the level of single cells to a cortical network, of how the brain produces social communication signals through the face, and 2) forms a new model system in which hypotheses related to socioemotional expression and its deficit can be rigorously tested. The applicant’s career goal is to be an academic physician-scientist with a research program aimed at bringing the theoretical motivations and methodologies of systems neuroscience to bear on complex behaviors, in both healthy and disease states. She is pursuing MD-PhD training at Weill Cornell Medical College and The Rockefeller University, and will develop research, scientific communication, and clinical expertise skills during this fellowship.

更新项目摘要： 在理解大脑如何产生社交信号方面存在根本性的差距。面部表情是社会中重要的社会信号，传达着内在情感状态和外部刺激的效价。这个缺口的持续存在是一个重要的问题，因为在它被填补之前，我们不可能理解让我们表达情感、交换社会信息和与同伴交流的神经原理。过去的工作一直严格限制在一个单一的大脑区域的几个细胞的属性。最近发现的社交通信信号产生的功能网络，当与多通道电极阵列配对时，允许同时记录组成这个分布式网络的细胞群体。长期目标是了解大脑如何产生社会交际行为。总体目标是阐明离散皮质区的神经群体如何控制社会交际面部运动。核心假设是，交流性面部运动是由一组功能特异性皮层区域的协调活动控制的，每个区域都包含具有特征时空感受野的细胞。其基本原理是，该建议将确定从单细胞水平到皮层区域的面部表情产生机制，从而能够对社会情绪表达及其缺陷进行机制研究。该假设将通过追求三个具体目标进行测试：1）确定面部表情产生网络的不同节点中的单细胞对面部运动的贡献，2）确定面部表情产生网络的不同节点的功能特异性，以及3）确定面部表情是否由离散的皮层状态引起。在第一个和第三个目标下，针对fMRI定位区域的多通道电极阵列将测量社交行为期间面部表情产生网络多个区域的神经元的同时活动。在目标2中，申请人将使用这些阵列来递送皮质内微刺激，以便因果地确定每个区域的功能特异性。这项研究是创新的，因为它结合了两种尖端的神经生理学方法，在一个新的模型系统的社会沟通，以产生第一个机械描述的皮层控制的面部表情。这项研究意义重大，因为它1）从单细胞到皮层网络的水平，对大脑如何通过面部产生社会交流信号产生了一种机械的理解，2）形成了一个新的模型系统，其中与社会情绪表达及其缺陷相关的假设可以得到严格的检验。申请人的职业目标是成为一名学术医生-科学家，其研究项目旨在将系统神经科学的理论动机和方法论应用于健康和疾病状态下的复杂行为。她正在威尔康奈尔医学院和洛克菲勒大学进行MD-PhD培训，并将在此奖学金期间发展研究，科学交流和临床专业技能。