Visual/Spatial Properties of Posterior Parietal Neurons

描述（由申请人提供）：本竞争性修订是根据通知no - od -09-058提交的：NIH宣布竞争性修订申请的恢复法案资金可用性。本申请扩展了“后顶叶神经元的视觉/空间特性”的范围和方法，包括两个额外的研究目标。目前大多数关于手眼协调和运动计划选择的神经机制的知识都来自非人类灵长类动物的电生理记录，最近来自人类的功能磁共振成像实验。为了能够整合这些发现，有必要用相同的方法研究这两个物种，特别是因为两种技术的结果并不总是得出相同的结论。目前的授权修订旨在阐明关于额顶叶网络中手和眼信号重叠程度的猴子和人类研究之间的差异。具体来说，当猴子在空间目标位置（即左与右）或不同的效应器（即眼睛与手）之间进行选择时，我们将通过应用事件相关的功能磁共振成像来研究空间和效应器选择是如何在猴子的大脑中表现出来的。此外，我们将通过研究来自内部或外部因素的空间选择偏好如何由大脑的不同区域表示来扩展正在进行的神经生理学实验。这次修订符合《复苏法案》的目标。这将需要保留一名现有的高级博士后员工，雇用一名新的博士后、一名新的技术人员和一名新的兼职射频工程师。将从国内企业引进先进的核磁共振兼容设备，投资于扩大项目目标所必需的新技术。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This Competitive Revision is submitted in response to the notice NOT-OD-09-058: NIH Announces the Availability of Recovery Act Funds for Competitive Revision Applications. This application expands the scope and the methodology of the parent grant "Visual/Spatial Properties of Posterior Parietal Neurons" to include two additional research aims. Most of the current knowledge about neural mechanisms underlying eye-hand coordination and selection of movement plans has been derived from electrophysiological recordings in non-human primates, and more recently from fMRI experiments in humans. In order to be able to integrate those findings, it is necessary to study both species by means of the same method, especially because results from the two techniques have not always led to the same conclusions. The current grant revision aims to elucidate the discrepancy between monkey and human studies concerning the degree of overlap between hand and eye signals within the frontoparietal network. Specifically, we will investigate how spatial and effector choices are represented in the monkey brain by applying event-related fMRI while monkeys are choosing either between spatial target positions (i.e. left vs. right) or between different effectors (i.e. eye vs. hand). In addition, we will expand ongoing neurophysiological experiments by investigating how spatial choice preferences originating either from internal or external factors are represented by different areas in the brain. This revision adheres to the goals of the Recovery Act. It will entail retaining a current senior postdoc employee, hiring a new postdoc, a new technician, and a new part-time RF engineer. It will invest in the new technology essential to expand the goals of the project, by acquiring advanced MR-compatible equipment from domestic companies. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: The results of the proposed studies can be used to help design therapies for patients suffering from damage to frontal and parietal cortex from strokes and traumatic brain injuries. Application of functional imaging in monkeys, as routinely is done in human patients and healthy subjects, will facilitate the understanding of normal cortical functions and deficits that result from neurological diseases, and can guide the diagnoses and treatments for these diseases