Neural mechanisms of visual sensitivity

摘要 当今神经科学中最重要的问题之一是关于感觉 神经元产生知觉体验。有许多方法可以解决这个问题，这些方法已经有很长时间了 出现在视觉神经科学领域。其中最突出的是对视觉选择性的研究。观察者 对某些视觉刺激高度敏感，而对其他视觉刺激不太敏感。视觉神经元也高度 选择性：每一种都对几个刺激维度上的有限范围的刺激做出反应。建议数 研究旨在了解神经元反应的选择性模式如何解释观察者的 选择性的知觉经验和辨别能力。 这一理解将通过首先评估神经元选择性模式的实验来实现 用于在其空间和时间属性上变化的视觉刺激。第二，这些数据与 对刺激背景的操纵将被用来开发一种新的神经元选择性的机制解释 基于由抑制稳定的皮质视觉回路中的活动。最后，为了了解神经元是如何 选择性是感知体验的基础，将在生理测量之间进行直接比较 神经元选择性和知觉选择性的行为测量，在相同的条件下同时评估 条件。 这项拟议的研究包含了丰富交织的心理物理、神经生理学和 理解空间和时间视觉的理论方法。这些实验将产生一种 史无前例的关于灵长类视觉系统时空调节的综合数据。 这些数据将被用来进一步了解感觉加工的机制，并将提供 对由大脑创伤、疾病和发育障碍引起的视觉病理的洞察。 好了！

Abstract One of the most important questions in neuroscience today concerns the mechanisms by which sensory neurons give rise to perceptual experience. There are many ways to address this question, which have long populated the field of visual neuroscience. Prominent among them is the study of visual selectivity. Observers are highly sensitive to some visual stimuli and less sensitive to others. Visual neurons are also highly selective: Each responds to a limited range of stimuli along several stimulus dimensions. The proposed research aims to understand how the selective pattern of neuronal responses accounts for the observer’s selective perceptual experience and discriminative capacity. This understanding will be achieved through experiments that first evaluate patterns of neuronal selectivity for visual stimuli that vary in their spatial and temporal properties. Second, these data, in combination with manipulations of stimulus context, will be used to develop a novel mechanistic account of neuronal selectivity based on activity within cortical visual circuits stabilized by inhibition. Finally, to understand how neuronal selectivity underlies perceptual experience, direct comparisons will be made between physiological measures of neuronal selectivity and behavioral measures of perceptual selectivity, assessed concurrently under identical conditions. The proposed research constitutes a richly interwoven collection of psychophysical, neurophysiological and theoretical approaches to understanding of spatial and temporal vision. The experiments will yield an unprecedented body of comprehensive data regarding the spatiotemporal tuning of the primate visual system. These data will be used to further understanding of the mechanisms of sensory processing and will provide insights into pathologies of vision caused by trauma, disease and developmental disorders of the brain. !