Organization and Development of Sensory Systems and Emotions

感觉系统和情绪的组织和发展

• 批准号: RGPIN-2014-05053
• 负责人: Lepore, Franco
• 金额: $ 3.57万
• 依托单位: Université de Montréal
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2016
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2016-01-01 至 2017-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=611409
• 关键词: Organization; Development; Sensory; Systems; Emotions

The present project has three principal themes based on past expertise and accomplishments. The first examines sensory system and multi-sensory integration. Multisensory integration of visuo-tactile stimuli will look at integration within or across different hemispaces to study the facilitation of performance when presented together instead of separately. Of particular interest when stimuli are presented in different hemispaces is how the CC contributes to integration. This is achieved by comparing neurotypical and CC sectioned or agenesis subjects. The interpretations of the behavioral results will be validated using fMRI imaging. Visual and auditory processing will also be examined in patients implanted with intracranial EEG electrodes (iEEG) and how neuronal binding at visual object recognition is achieved when stimuli are presented directly to one or via the inter-hemispheric pathway, namely the corpus callosum (CC). Of particular interest are the alpha and gamma waves and how higher level cortical areas facilitate recognition through top-down facilitation, and this for complex stimuli when they are presented intra- or inter-hemispherically for a second time. Similar processes will be examined for auditory stimuli presented at different levels of recognition, that is, when complex stimuli (bells, voices) are presented at different signal to noise ratios. The second theme will examine emotional processing. Thus, we shall examine how emotional visual stimuli presented in peripheral retina, which has poor spatial resolution but transmits rapidly to visual areas, influences recognition when emotionally laden stimuli are presented in central vision, which has high resolution but slower transmission time. To further validate our hypothesis, stimuli will also be modulated and presented using normal and modified spatial resolution. We shall also examine the hemispheric specialization for emotional stimuli of different arousal (strong, neutral) and valence (positive negative, neutral) values. In effect, there appears to be a right hemispheric dominance (striato-limbic areas) for arousal but a left orbito-frontal one for recognition at foveal presentation. These studies will use behavioral assessments (reaction time at recognition), electrophysiological measures (skin conductance response- SCR) and MEG imaging. We shall also examine the above sub-themes using our iEEG paradigm in implanted patients. These patients will also be tested on empathy for pain, namely, their capacity at the cortical level to understand and experience other’s emotional feelings and needs. Thus the patient has to recognize the pain expressed by an actor and we examine their cortical responses. Another sub-theme is emotional decison making when a subject has to treat risky and safe conditions to win or loose money. In both, the insular cortex is the target region of interest. We shall pay particular attention to the mirror neuron system, that is, neurons that react similarly whether they experience or observe empathy or risky decision making in others. Finally, a new theme for which we have recently validated the feasibility will examine how the stimuli presented above (e.g., visual treatment of complex images, emotional face recognition) are treated at the single-cell level in these patients. Few specific projects are presented since we are still in the process of mastering all the components of the technique given the constraints of recording in patients single-cell responses. However, we are confident that we shall carry this out effectively since we have recently recorded four neurons in one patient in the inferior occipital gyrus, including one neuron that showed differential activations to happy or angry faces. These results promise exciting possibilities.

目前的项目基于过去的专业知识和成就有三个主要主题。第一部分研究感觉系统和多感觉统合。视觉-触觉刺激的多感官整合将着眼于不同半球内部或之间的整合，以研究在一起呈现而不是单独呈现时的表现便利性。特别有趣的是，当刺激出现在不同的大脑半球时，CC是如何促进整合的。这是通过比较神经正常和CC切片或发育不全的受试者来实现的。对行为结果的解释将使用功能磁共振成像进行验证。在植入颅内脑电图电极（iEEG）的患者中，还将检查视觉和听觉处理，以及当刺激直接呈现给一个或通过半球间通路（即胼胝体（CC））时，视觉物体识别的神经元结合是如何实现的。特别令人感兴趣的是阿尔法波和伽马波，以及高水平的皮层区域如何通过自上而下的促进促进识别，当复杂的刺激第二次出现在半球内或半球间时。类似的过程将在不同的识别水平上被检查，也就是说，当复杂的刺激（铃声，声音）以不同的信噪比被呈现时。第二个主题将考察情绪处理。因此，我们将研究在空间分辨率较差但传输速度较快的外周视网膜中呈现的情绪性视觉刺激如何影响识别，而在中央视觉中呈现的情绪性视觉刺激具有高分辨率但传输时间较慢。为了进一步验证我们的假设，刺激也将被调制，并使用正常和修改的空间分辨率来呈现。我们还将研究不同唤醒（强烈的，中性的）和效价（积极的，消极的，中性的）值的情绪刺激的半球专门化。实际上，似乎是右半球（纹状体-边缘区）控制唤醒，而左眶额半球控制中央凹呈现的识别。这些研究将使用行为评估（识别时的反应时间）、电生理测量（皮肤电导反应- SCR）和脑磁图成像。我们还将在植入患者中使用iEEG范式检查上述子主题。这些患者还将被测试对疼痛的同理心，即他们在皮质水平上理解和体验他人情绪感受和需求的能力。因此，患者必须识别演员所表达的疼痛，我们检查他们的皮质反应。另一个次要主题是情绪化的决策，当一个对象必须处理风险和安全的情况下赢得或失去钱。在这两种情况下，岛叶皮层都是我们感兴趣的目标区域。我们将特别关注镜像神经元系统，也就是说，无论它们经历或观察他人的同理心或冒险决策，它们的反应都是相似的。最后，我们最近验证了可行性的一个新主题将研究如何在这些患者的单细胞水平上处理上述刺激（例如，复杂图像的视觉处理，情感面部识别）。由于记录患者单细胞反应的限制，我们仍处于掌握该技术的所有组成部分的过程中，因此提出了一些具体的项目。然而，我们相信我们将有效地进行这项研究，因为我们最近在一位患者的枕下回记录了四个神经元，其中一个神经元对快乐或愤怒的表情表现出不同的激活。这些结果预示着令人兴奋的可能性。