Attention and Tactile Processing in Somatosensory Cortex

体感皮层的注意力和触觉处理

• 批准号: 8254434
• 负责人: STEVEN S HSIAO
• 金额: $ 48.95万
• 依托单位: JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 1995
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 1995-09-30 至 2015-04-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/8254434
• 关键词: Amputees; Animals; Area; Attention; Behavior; Caliber; Chest; Chronic; Code; Cutaneous; Development; Discrimination; Electric Stimulation; Feedback; Fingers; Funding; Hand; Human; Joints; Macaca mulatta; Mechanoreceptors; Memory; Modality; Molecular Conformation; Motion; Motor Cortex; Muscle; Nervous system structure; Neurons; Perception; Population; Positioning Attribute; Process; Property; Proprioceptor; Prosthesis; Psychophysiology; Research; Role; Shapes; Signal Transduction; Size Perception; Skin; Somatosensory Cortex; Tactile; Tendon structure; Testing; Texture; Training; Upper Extremity; Width; Work; arm; awake; base; grasp; haptics; neurophysiology; nonhuman primate; object perception; object shape; public health relevance; receptor; reinnervation; relating to nervous system; research study; response; selective attention; sensory feedback; vision aid

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Many studies have shown that we can easily recognize objects without the aid of vision. In this application we propose to study how the size and shape of objects that we grasp in our hands are represented in the cortex. Our working hypothesis is that size and shape perception involves the integration of cutaneous receptors in the skin with proprioceptors in the skin, muscles and joints. The cutaneous receptors provide information about the local features of the object such as the form, texture and whether it is moving. The proprioceptors provide information about hand conformation and tell the nervous system where the cutaneous inputs are located in 3D space. There are three aims. The first is to investigate how cutaneous and proprioceptive input related to object shape is integrated in somatosensory cortex. The second is to investigate how the size of objects are represented in cortex. The third aim is to investigate how size and shape are processed in animals performing discrimination tasks. For the first two aims we will perform psychophysical experiments on humans performing shape or size discrimination tasks. In addition, we will perform single-unit recordings from both primary and secondary somatosensory cortex from awake-behaving animals. In these studies the animals' hand and fingers will be passively moved to contact objects of varying size and shape. In the third aim animals will perform two-alternative force choice tasks where they are required to discriminate either the size or the shape of objects. In this study we will investigate the mechanisms of selective attention and in addition will test whether these neurons are directly related to perception using electrical stimulation to alter behavior. These studies will provide an understanding of the mechanisms of shape processing in the somatosensory cortex and an understanding of how hand conformation is represented. The study has direct relevance to the development of sensory feedback for amputees with upper-limb prosthetics. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: These studies have important implications for using electrical feedback in amputees with upper limb prosthetics. In recent years we have made remarkable progress in controlling prosthetic arms with signals taken directly from the motor cortex. However our ability to provide sensory feedback has been limited to targeted reinnervation of receptors in the arm are moved to the skin on the chest or to simple vibratory feedback. Providing realistic perception of inputs from a prosthetic arm is a major challenge. In these studies we will determine whether electrical stimulation can be used to produce the percepts of object size and shape.

描述（由申请人提供）：许多研究表明，我们可以很容易地识别物体，而无需视觉的帮助。在这个应用程序中，我们建议研究我们手中抓住的物体的大小和形状如何在皮层中表示。我们的工作假设是，大小和形状感知涉及皮肤中的皮肤感受器与皮肤、肌肉和关节中的本体感受器的整合。皮肤感受器提供关于物体的局部特征的信息，例如形状、纹理和它是否在移动。本体感受器提供有关手部构造的信息，并告诉神经系统皮肤输入在3D空间中的位置。有三个目标。第一部分是探讨与物体形状相关的皮肤和本体感受输入在躯体感觉皮层的整合。二是研究物体大小在大脑皮层中的表征。第三个目的是研究动物在执行辨别任务时是如何加工大小和形状的。对于前两个目标，我们将对人类执行形状或大小辨别任务进行心理物理实验。此外，我们将从清醒行为动物的初级和次级躯体感觉皮层进行单单位记录。在这些研究中，动物的手和手指将被动地移动以接触不同大小和形状的物体。在第三个目标中，动物将执行两种选择力选择任务，要求它们区分物体的大小或形状。在这项研究中，我们将研究选择性注意的机制，并将测试这些神经元是否直接与感知有关，使用电刺激来改变行为。这些研究将提供一个了解的机制，形状处理的躯体感觉皮层和了解如何手的构象是代表。这项研究与上肢假肢截肢者的感觉反馈的发展直接相关。 公共卫生相关性：这些研究对上肢假肢截肢者使用电反馈具有重要意义。近年来，我们在利用直接来自运动皮层的信号控制假肢方面取得了显著进展。然而，我们提供感觉反馈的能力一直局限于有针对性的神经再支配的受体在手臂上移动到皮肤上的胸部或简单的振动反馈。提供来自假肢的输入的真实感知是一个重大挑战。在这些研究中，我们将确定电刺激是否可以用来产生物体大小和形状的感知。