Neural circuit mechanisms underlying hierarchical visual processing in Drosophila

项目摘要 了解神经回路如何产生感觉计算，并最终产生感知，需要 将神经回路的生物特征与神经计算的抽象模型联系起来。在维森， 视觉感受野（RF）描述了神经元的反应是如何由视觉输入决定的。 遭遇视觉RF还可以提供对神经元功能的紧凑描述，揭示神经元的功能。 神经元负责编码的外部环境的特征。视觉系统中的复杂RF 负责物体识别等高级计算以及视觉的中级特征， 像大小选择性和平移不变性这样的表示。许多高阶视觉回路的复杂性 这使得将这些表征的模型与它们所假设的生物回路联系起来变得困难， 代表。 跨感觉系统和物种的神经回路通常依赖于收敛的计算和 算法策略来编码外部环境的特征。该项目将利用这一事实， 在一个易于处理的背景下，解决复杂RF结构的生物学基础问题， 果蝇在这个博士后培训奖学金，申请人将使用国家的最先进的成像技术， 果蝇视叶神经元复杂RF特征的神经活动荧光报告 投射到大脑中枢这些结果将用于生成复杂RF的分层模型 在生物电路中接地。 !

Project summary Understanding how neural circuits give rise to sensory computation and, ultimately, perception, requires connecting biological features of neural circuits to abstract models of neural computation. In vison, a model of the visual receptive field (RF) describes how a neuron's responses are determined by the visual inputs it encounters. The visual RF can also provide a compact description of a neuron's function, revealing which features of the external environment that neuron is responsible for encoding. Complex RFs in the visual system are responsible for high-level computations like object recognition as well as mid-level features of visual representation like size selectivity and translation invariance. The complexity of many higher-order visual circuits has made it difficult to connect models of these representations to the biological circuits that they are supposed to represent. Neural circuits across sensory systems and species often rely on convergent computational and algorithmic strategies to encode features of the external environment. This project will leverage this fact to address the question of the biological basis of complex RF structure in a tractable context, the visual system of Drosophila. In this postdoctoral training fellowship, the applicant will use state-of-the-art imaging techniques and fluorescent reporters of neural activity to describe complex RF features in neurons of the Drosophila optic lobe which project to the central brain. These results will be used to generate hierarchical models of complex RFs that are grounded in biological circuits. !