SACCADE TARGET SELECTION-FRONTAL CORTEX

描述(由申请人提供)：我们研究的长期目标是了解视觉系统是如何决定看哪里的。在执行视觉搜索任务的猴子身上，将同时监测多个神经元的活动，这些任务旨在将视觉处理与眼跳准备分开。我们将研究前部眼区，因为它位于解剖学的位置，以采样视觉处理的结果来定向注意力，并产生运动指令来定向凝视。将分析神经活动的模式，以评估关于视觉信息如何编码用于在神经元池中进行目标选择的具体假设(目标1)，描述视觉神经元和眼跳神经元之间如何发生感觉-运动映射(目标2)，并确定短期和长期经验如何影响眼跳目标选择(目标3)。要了解视觉行为受损的原因，就必须了解大脑是如何选择视觉刺激进行行动的。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The long-term goal of our research is to understand how the visual system decides where to look. The activity of multiple neurons will be monitored simultaneously in monkeys performing visual search tasks designed to dissociate visual processing from saccade preparation. The frontal eye field will be studied because it is situated anatomically to sample the outcome of visual processing to orient attention and produce motor commands to orient gaze. Patterns of neural activity will be analyzed to evaluate specific hypotheses about how visual information is encoded for target selection among pools of neurons (Aim 1), to describe how sensory-motor mapping occurs between visual and saccade neurons (Aim 2) and to determine how short-term and long-term experience influences saccade target selection (Aim 3). Understanding how the brain selects visual stimuli for action is necessary to understand the causes of impaired visual behavior.