Neural Control of Object Recognition and Action Workshop

该提案请求国家科学基金会提供资金，以支持将于2009年9月在佐治亚理工学院举办的关于物体识别和动作的神经控制的特别研讨会。人类既有能力识别工具，也有能力理解它们如何被用来实现行为目标。然而，许多人患有与认知和运动过程整合失败有关的障碍，特别是在脑损伤后。这方面的两个被广泛研究的缺陷是失用症，即目标定向运动的障碍，以及失认，即物体识别的障碍。目前，研究人员倾向于将失用症和失认症视为独立的现象，他们建立了独立的理论来解释它们。如果研究人员考虑失认症和失用症的许多相似之处，就有可能更好地理解，因为从这两个领域的更多合作工作中可以学到很多东西。这个研讨会的一个直接目标是促进研究失用和失认的研究人员之间的交流，1)鼓励和发展这两个领域之间的合作，2)促进整合这两个领域的概念和描述的研究，3)确定可能导致失用和失认的损害和恢复的神经基础。对讲习班目标问题的理解将对基础科学和公共卫生产生重大影响。失用症和失认症对患者的日常生活具有衰弱的影响，这些缺陷需要神经心理学、神经科学和运动科学的研究人员的共同努力。拟议的讲习班具有高度跨学科的性质，可能会促进新的和现有的合作。这笔资金将吸引国际专家参加会议，并通过降低费用和提供旅行支持机会使学生和博士后能够参加会议。发言者和组委会成员包括妇女和代表不足的少数群体成员。最后，研讨会的一个关键成果是开发协作集群，以推动基础神经科学和临床应用领域的发展。

This proposal requests NSF funding to support a special workshop on the neural control of object recognition and action, to be held in September 2009 at Georgia Institute of Technology. Humans have the capacity to both recognize tools and comprehend how they are used to achieve a behavioral goal. However, many people suffer from disorders related to the failure in integrating cognitive and motor processes, particularly after brain injury. The two well studied deficits in this regard are apraxia, impairment in goal-directed movement, and agnosia, impairment in object recognition. Currently, researchers tend to treat apraxia and agnosia as separate phenomena, and they build separate theories to account for them. A better understanding is possible if researchers consider the many similarities in agnosia and apraxia, as there is much that can be learned from more collaborative work in the two domains. An immediate goal of this workshop is to foster communication between researchers who study apraxia and agnosia by 1) encouraging and developing collaboration between the two fields, and 2) promoting research that integrates concepts and accounts from both fields, and 3) identifying the neural substrates of impairment and recovery that may underlie both apraxia and agnosia. The understanding of the target questions of the workshop will have significant implications for both basic science and public health. Apraxia and agnosia have debilitating effects on patients in their daily lives, and these deficits require the joint efforts from researchers in neuropsychology, neuroscience, and kinesthetic sciences. The proposed workshop has a highly interdisciplinary nature and is likely to promote new and existing collaborations. The funding will bring international experts to the meeting, and enable students and postdocs to participate in the meeting by including reduced fees and opportunities for travel support. The speakers and the organizing committee include women and members of underrepresented minorities. Finally, a critical outcome of the workshop is to develop collaborative clusters to advance the field in both basic neuroscience and clinical applications.