SL-CN: Development of Neural Body Maps

对成年人的大量研究已经证明了人体地图在人类大脑中的存在。这些神经地图有一个有组织的空间布局。身体的邻近部位以有序的方式与处理触摸和运动的大脑区域相连。身体地图对日常生活的许多方面都很重要，包括对自己身体的感觉和控制我们的动作。身体地图也可能在向他人学习方面发挥重要作用，通过让我们记录自己和他人之间的相似之处。尽管身体地图很重要，但目前人们对它们在生命早期的几个月和几年中是如何发展的知之甚少。该奖项支持的研究将为身体地图的发展及其与早期学习的关系提供重要的新信息。该奖项支持一个合作的，跨学科的调查网络，他们将联合收割机结合在发展心理学和婴儿学习，脑科学，认知科学，计算机建模和机器人技术的专业知识。拟议的网络还将通过旨在使初级调查员了解多学科办法好处的具体活动，支持他们的发展和培训。安全测量人类婴儿大脑活动的方法的进步，使人们对身体地图在早期学习中的作用提出了新的问题。拟议的研究涉及使用脑磁图（MEG）来非侵入性地测量婴儿大脑对身体不同部位（例如，手与脚），并将这些反应与婴儿学习的各个方面联系起来。另一组涉及脑电图（EEG）的研究将研究身体地图如何促进早期模仿和向他人学习。这些研究的见解将为使用计算机建模的进一步研究提供信息（并被告知），这些研究在设计可以向人类学习的机器人系统时考虑了身体因素。研究问题还将提供对脑机接口控制的深入了解，这些接口可以帮助残疾人学习控制假肢和其他外部设备。

A great deal of research with adults has documented the presence of body maps in the human brain. These neural maps have an organized spatial layout. Neighboring parts of the body are connected in an orderly fashion to areas of the brain that process touch and movement. Body maps are important for many aspect of everyday life including the sense of one's own body and controlling our movements. Body maps also likely play an important role in learning from others, through allowing us to register similarities between ourselves and other people. Despite the importance of body maps, very little is currently understood about how they develop in the early months and years of life. The research supported by this award would provide significant new information on the development of body maps and their relation to early learning. The award supports a collaborative, cross-disciplinary network of investigators who will combine expertise in developmental psychology and infant learning, brain science, cognitive science, computer modelling, and robotics. The proposed network will also support the development and training of junior investigators through specific activities designed to expose them to the benefits of an interdisciplinary approach. Advances in methods for safely measuring the brain activity of human infants are allowing new questions to be asked concerning the role of body maps in early learning. The proposed research involves using magnetoencephalography (MEG) to non-invasively measure responses of the infant brain to tactile stimulation of different parts of the body (e.g., hands vs. feet), and to relate these responses to aspects of infant learning. Another set of studies involving electroencephalography (EEG) will examine how body maps facilitate early imitation and learning from others. Insights from these studies will inform (and be informed by) a further strain of research using computer modelling that takes bodily factors into account in designing robotic systems that can learn from people. The research questions will also provide insight into the control of brain-computer interfaces that can assist disabled individuals in learning to control artificial limbs and other external devices.