Influence of learning and experience on neuronal numerosity selectivity

虽然近年来带来了显着的进步，我们的理解的神经基板和机制，代表数字量，鲜为人知的是在大脑中的数字选择性的发展。我们小组的工作表明，顶叶和额叶联合皮层中的单个神经元对视觉集合的大小进行编码。到目前为止，这些研究都是在经过广泛训练的动物中进行的，以区分大小，提高了神经元数量选择性方面可能由学习和经验塑造的可能性。在数量和反应特征上类似的数字探测器是否也存在于幼稚动物中仍然是一个谜。我们现在计划采用我们完善的协议来解决关于学习，经验和行为背景对数字表示的作用的问题。使用多电极技术，我们将同时记录来自后顶叶和前额叶皮质的神经元活动，这些区域已知对数字分类很重要，在幼稚和学习的猴子中。这将使我们能够发现数量选择性是否以及如何随着训练状态和行为相关性而变化，以及不同联合皮层中的神经元网络如何被经验所改变。

While recent years brought significant advances in our understanding of the neural substrates and mechanisms that represent numerical quantities, little is known about the development of numerosity selectivity in the brain. Work from our group has shown that single neurons in the parietal and frontal association cortices encode visual set sizes. So far, these investigations have been done exclusively in animals trained extensively to discriminate magnitude, raising the possibility that aspects of neuronal numerosity selectivity might be shaped by learning and experience. Whether numerosity detectors similar in number and response characteristics do also exist in naïve animals remains elusive. We now plan to adopt our well established protocols to address questions about the role of learning, experience and behavioral context for numerosity representations. Using multiple-electrode techniques, we will simultaneously record neuronal activity from the posterior parietal and prefrontal cortices, areas known to be important for numerical categories, in naïve and learning monkeys. This will allow us to find out if and how numerosity selectivity changes with training status and behavioral relevance, and how neuronal networks in different association cortices become modified by experience.