Multimodal sensory modulation and human motor control

多模态感觉调制和人体运动控制

• 批准号: 250364-2007
• 负责人: Staines, Richard
• 金额: $ 2.22万
• 依托单位: University of Waterloo
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2012
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2012-01-01 至 2013-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=504136
• 关键词: Multimodal; sensory; modulation; human; motor

In order to interact in our environment during everyday activities, the central nervous system (CNS) must identify and extract relevant sensory information from a vast array of concurrent inputs from multiple sensory modalities. Such processing is essential for accurately controlling movements, learning novel motor skills and successfully relearning movement patterns following brain injury. Sensory inputs initially arrive and are processed at very distinct, modality specific areas of the cortex before being integrated in sensory association cortices. Previous research has provided detailed characterization and mechanistic information regarding how sensory inputs within a specific modality are represented during movement at a relatively early cortical level. For example, our ongoing research suggests that selection of somatosensory information begins to occur at the very earliest stage of cortical processing, the primary somatosensory cortex, during sensory-guided movement and perceptual discrimination. Highly selective mechanisms appear to be involved, including inhibition of ascending cortical paths carrying task-irrelevant information and facilitation of those carrying task-relevant information. The specific regions that control this selection are unclear, however interactions between the prefrontal cortex, thalamus, multimodal sensory regions and primary unimodal sensory cortices appear to play an important role. However, much less is known about how these mechanisms of control are altered when the central nervous system is presented with multiple sources of sensory inputs, as is usually the case during natural movement. Our current work suggests that the cortical representations of competitive visual and tactile input change substantially depending on the task-relevance of the stimuli and on the spatial and temporal relationship between visual and somatosensory information. As such the proposed research program will focus on developing fundamental understanding of the interactions and integration of sensory inputs from multiple modalities at a cortical level and the role this plays in the acquisition and control of normal limb movement.

为了在日常活动中与我们的环境进行互动，中枢神经系统（CNS）必须从来自多种感觉模态的大量并发输入中识别和提取相关的感觉信息。这种处理对于准确控制运动、学习新的运动技能和成功地重新学习脑损伤后的运动模式至关重要。感觉输入最初到达并在皮层中非常不同的、特定模式的区域进行处理，然后在感觉关联皮层中进行整合。先前的研究已经提供了详细的表征和机制信息，说明了在相对早期的皮层水平上，特定模态内的感觉输入是如何在运动过程中表现出来的。例如，我们正在进行的研究表明，体感信息的选择开始发生在皮层加工的最早阶段，即初级体感皮层，在感觉引导的运动和知觉辨别期间。高度选择性的机制似乎参与其中，包括对携带任务无关信息的上行皮质通路的抑制和对携带任务相关信息的通路的促进。控制这种选择的特定区域尚不清楚，但前额皮质、丘脑、多模态感觉区域和初级单模态感觉皮质之间的相互作用似乎起着重要作用。然而，当中枢神经系统呈现多种感觉输入来源时，这些控制机制是如何改变的，就像在自然运动中通常出现的情况一样，人们对这一点知之甚少。我们目前的工作表明，竞争性视觉和触觉输入的皮层表征在很大程度上取决于刺激的任务相关性以及视觉和体感信息之间的空间和时间关系。因此，拟议的研究计划将侧重于在皮层水平上发展对来自多种方式的感觉输入的相互作用和整合的基本理解，以及这在正常肢体运动的获取和控制中所起的作用。