Project B: Neural basis of causal inference and sensory updating in trial-based tasks in monkeys

项目 B：猴子试验任务中因果推理和感觉更新的神经基础

• 批准号: 10615047
• 负责人: GREGORY C DEANGELIS
• 金额: $ 53.71万
• 依托单位: UNIVERSITY OF ROCHESTER
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2020-08-01 至 2025-04-30
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10615047
• 关键词: Affect; Animals; Area; Attention; Back; Behavior; Behavioral; Belief; Brain; Data; Event; Feedback; Goals; Impairment; Judgment; Light; Link; Macaca; Mediating; Modeling; Monkeys; Motion; Muscimol; Neural Pathways; Parietal; Pathway interactions; Pattern; Physics; Population; Process; Reporting; Retina; Role; Sensory; Signal Transduction; Structure; Testing; Time; Training; Update; Visual Cortex; Work; area MT; design; experimental study; extrastriate visual cortex; neural; neural circuit; neural correlate; object motion; optic flow; optogenetics; predictive modeling; retinotopic; sensory cortex; visual processing

Project Summary The world's complexity makes sensory information ambiguous. A set of signals sweeping across the retina, for instance, might be generated by a moving object or by the animal's own motion. The brain resolves this ambiguity by constructing an internal model of reality that associates patterns in sensory data with events in the world, in a process called causal inference. To support adaptive action, the brain's estimates of all relevant variables must be updated to remain consistent with physics under the current interpretation of the scene, as well as with each other. This proposal focuses on perceptual interactions among object motion, self-motion, and depth. This project will test the predictions of models from Project A for how causal inference should update these related sensory variables. Based on previous work and preliminary data, the overall hypothesis is that parietal (7a) and prefrontal (8av) areas signal whether or not an object moves in the world, and that these signals flow through feedback projections to update sensory representations of object depth in area MT and self-motion velocity in area MSTd. The goal of this project is to use traditional, trial-based tasks to determine whether, and if so how, causal inferences are propagated back to sensory cortex to update representations of task-relevant variables in monkeys. The goal of Aim 1 is to test whether causal inference modulates low-level sensory representations of motion by examining neural correlates of optic flow parsing, a phenomenon in which the perceived direction of an object's motion is strongly and predictably influenced by background optic flow. Aim 2 will test directly if sensory representations of task variables are updated to maintain consistency with beliefs about the world. Monkeys will judge whether an object moves in the world and also report its depth, while neural populations in parietal area 7a, prefrontal area 8av, and sensory areas MT and MSTd are recorded. The theoretical framework, supported by preliminary behavioral data, predicts that this causal inference about object motion will induce specific patterns of bias in estimates of depth and self-motion velocity, and that neural estimates of motion and depth in MT and MSTd will update to remain consistent with behavior. To identify the neural circuitry necessary for causal inference and sensory updating, Aim 3 will inactivate feedback pathways with muscimol or optogenetics while neural activity is recorded in sensory representations, as animals perform the same task as in Aim 2. Aim 1 is expected to establish that causal inference modulates early visual processing, and to identify the areas where these effects are implemented. Aim 2 will provide the first cellular and neural population evidence of causal inference and sensory updating by belief propagation. Aim 3 will establish a neural circuit that is necessary for mediating causal inference and for updating sensory representations. Together, successful completion of the proposed experiments will uncover circuit mechanisms of causal inference and sensory variable updating and establish a new functional role for top-down feedback connections, which are a general feature of cortical organization.

项目摘要 世界的复杂性使得感官信息变得模糊不清。一组信号扫过视网膜， 例如，可能是由移动的物体或动物自己的运动产生的。大脑解决了这个问题 通过构建现实的内部模型，将感官数据中的模式与 这个过程叫做因果推理。为了支持适应性行动，大脑对所有相关信息的估计 必须更新变量，以保持与当前场景解释下的物理一致， 以及彼此之间。该建议侧重于物体运动，自我运动， 和深度这个项目将测试项目A中的模型的预测，以确定因果推理应该如何 更新这些相关的感官变量。根据以前的工作和初步数据，总体假设是 顶叶（7a）和前额叶（8av）区域发出物体是否在世界上移动的信号，这些区域 信号流过反馈投影以更新区域MT中的对象深度的感觉表示， MSTd区的自运动速度。这个项目的目标是使用传统的、基于试验的任务来确定 因果推理是否以及如何传播回感觉皮层，以更新 猴子的任务相关变量。目标1的目的是检验因果推理是否调节低水平的 运动的感觉表征通过检查神经相关的光流解析，一种现象， 其中物体运动的感知方向受到背景光学的强烈且可预测的影响 流目标2将直接测试任务变量的感觉表征是否更新以保持一致性 对世界的信念。猴子会判断一个物体是否在世界上移动，也会报告它的深度， 而顶叶区7a、前额叶区8av和感觉区MT和MSTd的神经群则是 记录。由初步行为数据支持的理论框架预测， 关于物体运动的推断将在深度和自运动的估计中引起特定模式的偏差 速度，MT和MSTd中的运动和深度的神经估计将更新以保持与 行为为了确定因果推理和感觉更新所需的神经回路，目标3将 用蝇蕈醇或光遗传学阻断反馈通路，同时在感觉神经元中记录神经活动。 动物执行与目标2中相同的任务。目标1预计将确定因果关系 推理调节早期视觉处理，并确定这些影响的实施领域。 目标2将提供第一个细胞和神经群体的因果推理和感觉更新的证据， 信仰传播。目标3将建立一个神经回路，这对于调解因果推理和 更新感官表征总之，成功完成拟议的实验将揭示 因果推理和感觉变量更新的电路机制，并建立一个新的功能作用， 自上而下的反馈连接，这是皮层组织的一般特征。