Distributed Cortical Processing in Visual Working Memory

视觉工作记忆中的分布式皮层处理

• 批准号: 7737849
• 负责人: Steven L Bressler
• 金额: $ 37.33万
• 依托单位: MONTANA STATE UNIVERSITY - BOZEMAN
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2009
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2009-08-12 至 2014-04-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/7737849
• 关键词: Address; Alzheimer' s Disease; Area; Attention; Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder; Autistic Disorder; Behavior; Behavioral; Brain; Cognition; Color; Cortical Synchronization; Cues; Data; Diagnosis; Diagnostic; Disease; Exploratory/Developmental Grant for Diagnostic Cancer Imaging; Goals; Human; Impaired cognition; Inferior; Information Retrieval; Knowledge; Lead; Macaca; Maintenance; Measurement; Measures; Mediating; Memory; Microelectrodes; Monitor; Monkeys; Neurons; Operative Surgical Procedures; Parietal; Parietal Lobe; Pattern; Perception; Play; Population; Process; Research; Retrieval; Role; Sampling; Schizophrenia; Shapes; Short-Term Memory; Signal Transduction; Stimulus; Temporal Lobe; Testing; Training; Variant; Visual; active control; base; extrastriate visual cortex; improved; insight; neuroimaging; neuromechanism; neuropsychiatry; nonhuman primate; oculomotor; public health relevance; relating to nervous system; research study; response; sensorimotor system; spatiotemporal; theories; therapy development; visual information

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The goal of the proposed research is to advance our understanding of the storage, maintenance, and retrieval of information in visual working memory. Our guiding hypothesis is that these functions involve the synchronous, and causal, interactions of neuronal populations located in prefrontal, posterior parietal, and inferior temporal cortical regions. Our research plan, based on an extensive body of preliminary studies supported by a previous R21 award, consists of two sets of experiments addressing three specific aims. In the first experiment, we will train macaque monkeys to perform an oculomotor delayed match-to-sample task in which memory load will be manipulated by changes in task duration and the inclusion of distractors. This study will enable us to test specific hypotheses regarding the neural mechanisms mediating the storage and maintenance of information in visual working memory. In the second experiment, another set of monkeys will be trained to perform a delayed match-to-sample task in which they must actively retrieve either the shape or the color of a sample object following a rule-based cue. This experiment will enable us to test specific hypotheses regarding the neural mechanisms mediating the active retrieval of information from visual working memory. In both experiments, we will perform long-term measurements of neuronal activity (i.e. unit activity and local field potentials) from up to 32 independently movable microelectrodes in prefrontal, posterior parietal, and inferior temporal cortical areas while the monkeys perform the behavioral tasks. Once the data are collected, we will apply a comprehensive battery of statistical analyses to test specific hypotheses regarding the storage, maintenance and retrieval of information in visual working memory. These analyses will characterize the spatiotemporal statistical relations between groups of simultaneously recorded neurons, between neurons and local field potentials, and between local field potentials. The results will allow us to test hypotheses concerning the synchronous neuronal interactions that occur both within and between cortical areas in support of visual working memory function. We anticipate that the proposed studies will produce new insights into the dynamics of synchronous activity thought to underlie the representation and utilization of visual information in working memory. The knowledge gained from these studies will provide an important framework for understanding synchronous functional relations in the brain that may be important in the diagnosis of pathological conditions, such as Alzheimer's disease, autism, and schizophrenia, in which these relations have already been demonstrated to be deficient. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Disturbances of attention and working memory, and the changes in synchronous cortical activity that accompany them, are a hallmark of human psychiatric conditions including Alzheimer's disease, Autism, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, and Schizophrenia. Analyses of disturbances in cortico-cortical synchronization hold the promise of providing critical diagnostic measures for a wide variety of cognitive disturbances. Hence, an improved understanding of the neural mechanisms mediating working memory and the task-dependent synchronization of cortical activity will have a significant impact on the development of treatments for a wide variety of neuropsychiatric disorders.

描述（由申请人提供）：拟议研究的目标是增进我们对视觉工作记忆中信息的存储、维护和检索的理解。我们的指导性假设是，这些功能涉及位于前额叶、后顶叶和颞下皮层区域的神经元群的同步、因果相互作用。我们的研究计划基于先前 R21 奖项支持的大量初步研究，包括两组针对三个特定目标的实验。在第一个实验中，我们将训练猕猴执行动眼神经延迟匹配样本任务，其中记忆负载将通过任务持续时间的变化和干扰因素的包含来操纵。这项研究将使我们能够测试有关介导视觉工作记忆中信息存储和维护的神经机制的具体假设。在第二个实验中，另一组猴子将被训练来执行延迟的样本匹配任务，其中它们必须按照基于规则的提示主动检索样本对象的形状或颜色。这个实验将使我们能够测试有关介导从视觉工作记忆中主动检索信息的神经机制的具体假设。在这两个实验中，当猴子执行行为任务时，我们将通过前额叶、后顶叶和颞下皮层区域多达 32 个可独立移动的微电极对神经元活动（即单位活动和局部场电位）进行长期测量。收集数据后，我们将应用一系列全面的统计分析来测试有关视觉工作记忆中信息的存储、维护和检索的具体假设。这些分析将表征同时记录的神经元组之间、神经元与局部场电位之间以及局部场电位之间的时空统计关系。这些结果将使我们能够检验有关皮层区域内部和之间发生的同步神经元相互作用的假设，以支持视觉工作记忆功能。我们预计所提出的研究将对同步活动的动态产生新的见解，该动态被认为是工作记忆中视觉信息的表示和利用的基础。从这些研究中获得的知识将为理解大脑中的同步功能关系提供一个重要的框架，这对于诊断阿尔茨海默病、自闭症和精神分裂症等病理状况可能很重要，而这些关系已被证明是有缺陷的。公共健康相关性：注意力和工作记忆的紊乱，以及随之而来的同步皮质活动的变化，是人类精神疾病的标志，包括阿尔茨海默病、自闭症、注意力缺陷多动障碍和精神分裂症。对皮质-皮质同步障碍的分析有望为各种认知障碍提供关键的诊断措施。因此，更好地了解介导工作记忆和任务依赖性皮质活动同步的神经机制将对各种神经精神疾病的治疗方法的开发产生重大影响。