CAREER: Neural basis of visual shape perception

该奖项全部或部分由2021年美国救援计划法案（公法117- 2）资助，复杂视觉形状的感知是灵长类视觉系统的标志，也是我们许多决定和行动的基础。这个CAREER项目的目标是推进灵长类动物大脑如何支持这一重要视觉能力的知识。该研究将调查参与视觉形状信息分析的大脑区域，确定其组织及其在感知中的作用。这项研究将采用一种强大的方法组合：测量和干扰行为过程中特定脑细胞亚群的活动。该项目还包括向公众传播研究核心概念的教育活动。教育活动将侧重于纽约市主要低收入社区的大学预科（K-12）学生。新的教学材料，展览演示和实验室为基础的研讨会将开发与非营利组织“生物巴士”和公共宣传计划在哥伦比亚大学的朱克曼研究所。每项活动都将突出研究的核心原则，从而创造出研究与教育的富有成效的融合。这些教育努力的集体成果将是加强科学的多样性、公平性、包容性和可及性。CAREER项目致力于加深我们对灵长类动物视觉形状感知的神经基础的理解。这项研究将集中在阐明视觉皮层V4区执行的神经计算-一个富含对视觉形状信息有选择性的神经元的区域。这项研究将解决关于这一皮层区域的两个主要未知数。第一类实验将使用层状记录来表征V4皮质层中形状选择神经元的组织。这些实验的结果有可能澄清视觉形状分析背后的电路水平机制，并可能揭示灵长类动物高阶皮层电路的关键组织原则。第二类实验将使用光遗传学沉默来评估V4活性在感知形状细微差异的能力中的因果作用。这些实验的结果有可能建立一个直接的作用，这个皮层区域的视觉形状感知。这些研究努力的集体成果将改变我们对灵长类动物大脑皮层视觉形状处理的理解水平，从主要描述性水平到更深层次的机械性水平。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估来支持。

This award is funded in whole or in part under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2.The perception of complex visual shapes is a hallmark of the primate visual system and a foundation for many of our decisions and actions. The goal of this CAREER project is to advance knowledge of how the primate brain supports this important visual capacity. The research will investigate a brain region involved in the analysis of visual shape information, identifying its organization and its role in perception. The research will employ a powerful combination of approaches: measuring and perturbing the activity of specific subsets of brain cells during behavior. The project also includes educational activities for disseminating core concepts of the research to the general public. The educational activities will focus on pre-college (K–12) students in predominantly low-income neighborhoods of New York City. New teaching materials, exhibit demos and lab-based workshops will be developed in collaboration with the non-profit organization “BioBus” and with public outreach programs at Columbia University’s Zuckerman Institute. Each activity will highlight a core principle of the research, thereby creating a fruitful integration of research and education. The collective outcome of these educational efforts will be to enhance diversity, equity, inclusion and access in science.The CAREER project endeavors to deepen our understanding of the neural basis of visual shape perception in primates. The research will focus on elucidating the neural computations performed by visual cortical area V4—a region enriched in neurons selective for visual shape information. The research will address two major unknowns about this cortical area. The first class of experiments will use laminar recordings to characterize the organization of shape-selective neurons across V4 cortical layers. Findings from these experiments have the potential to clarify the circuit-level mechanisms underlying visual shape analysis, and may reveal key organizing principles of higher-order cortical circuits in primates. The second class of experiments will use optogenetic silencing to assess the causal role of V4 activity in the ability to perceive fine differences in shape. Findings from these experiments have the potential to establish a direct role for this cortical area in visual shape perception. The collective outcome of these research efforts will be to transform the level at which we understand visual shape processing in the primate cerebral cortex, from a largely descriptive level to a deeper mechanistic one.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.