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Effects of Blindness on Human Early Visual Pathways

失明对人类早期视觉通路的影响

基本信息

批准号：
10414844
负责人：
IONE FINE
金额：
$ 6.61万
依托单位：
UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON
依托单位国家：
美国
项目类别：
财政年份：
2004
资助国家：
美国
起止时间：
2004-09-01 至 2023-06-30
项目状态：
已结题

项目摘要

Abstract Early blind individuals show superior performance across a wide variety of auditory skills. However, fMRI studies examining neural plasticity resulting from blindness have almost exclusively focused on techniques that pool information across voxels. As a result, while studies have shown that differences in neural activity between early blind and sighted subjects are correlated with behavioral performance, justifications for these correlations remain at the `more cortex is better' or the `bigger BOLD (or sometimes smaller) responses are better' level of explanation. We will examine the widespread alterations that occur within auditory processing pathways within early blind individuals using `voxel‐wise encoding' models that represent each voxel as having a tuning function along dimension(s) of interest. Simple linking models will allow us to predict behavioral performance based on the predicted cortical discriminability of stimuli. This will allow us, for the first time, to model quantitatively how neural responses to auditory stimuli might mediate the enhanced behavioral abilities observed in early blind individuals. In Aim 1 we will examine whether early blindness alters primary auditory cortex (PAC). We will begin by comparing PAC size, responsiveness and frequency tuning bandwidths across early blind and sighted individuals. We will then examine whether tuning for temporal amplitude modulations within primary auditory cortex are also affected by blindness. Computational models will be used to link primary auditory cortex neural responses to behavioral performance across a variety of auditory tasks for blind and sighted individuals. In Aim 2 we will use naturalistic stimuli to measure complex auditory spectro‐temporal tuning in both auditory and occipital cortex. Again, computational models will be used to link each individual's neural responses to auditory performance on complex naturalistic tasks. Finally in Aim 3 we will examine auditory motion processing. Although auditory motion responses are found within visual cortical area hMT+ in early blind individuals, it is not clear how these responses help early blind subjects to perceptually segregate moving auditory objects in complex auditory environments. We will examine whether hMT+ is tuned for frequency as well as direction of motion and how hMT+ neural responses might result in enhanced behavioral performance on auditory motion tasks.

摘要早期失明的人在各种听觉技能上表现出上级的表现。然而，研究失明导致的神经可塑性的功能磁共振成像研究几乎专门专注于跨体素汇集信息的技术。因此，虽然研究已经表明，早期失明和正常视力受试者之间的神经活动差异，与行为表现相关，这些相关性的理由仍然是“更多”。皮质更好”或“更大的粗体（有时更小）响应更好”的解释水平。我们将研究在听觉处理通路中发生的广泛变化在早期失明的个体中，使用“体素编码”模型，将每个体素表示为具有沿着感兴趣的维度的调谐功能。简单的链接模型将允许我们基于预测的刺激的皮层辨别力来预测行为表现。这这将使我们第一次定量地模拟神经对听觉刺激的反应，介导在早期失明个体中观察到的增强的行为能力。在目标1中，我们将研究早期失明是否会改变初级听觉皮层（PAC）。开始时，将比较早期盲人和视力正常的人。然后，我们将研究是否调整时间振幅初级听觉皮层内的调制也受到失明的影响。模型将用于将初级听觉皮质神经反应与行为表现联系起来对盲人和有视力的人进行各种听觉任务。在目标2中，我们将使用自然刺激来测量复杂的听觉频谱-时间在听觉和枕叶皮层的调谐。再次，计算模型将被用来连接每个人在复杂的自然主义任务中对听觉表现的神经反应。最后，在目标3中，我们将研究听觉运动处理。在早期失明个体的视觉皮层区域hMT+内发现了反应，但尚不清楚这些反应如何帮助早期失明的受试者在感知上分离运动的听觉对象在复杂的听觉环境中。我们将研究hMT+是否被调谐为频率，以及运动方向和hMT+神经反应如何导致增强的行为听觉运动任务的表现。