Neural mechanisms of visual sensitivity

摘要 当今神经科学中最重要的问题之一是关于感觉神经元的机制。 神经元产生知觉经验。有很多方法可以解决这个问题，这些方法已经很长时间了。 在视觉神经科学领域占据了一席之地。其中突出的是视觉选择性的研究。观察员 对某些视觉刺激高度敏感，对其他刺激不太敏感。视觉神经元也高度 选择性的：每一个都对沿着几个刺激维度的有限范围的刺激做出反应。拟议 研究的目的是了解神经元反应的选择性模式如何解释观察者的行为。 选择性知觉经验和辨别能力。 这种理解将通过实验来实现，首先评估神经元选择性的模式 视觉刺激的空间和时间属性的变化。其次，这些数据，结合 操纵的刺激上下文，将用于开发一种新的机制帐户的神经元的选择性 基于大脑皮层视觉回路的活动，该视觉回路被抑制所稳定。最后，为了了解神经元 选择性是知觉经验的基础，将在生理测量之间进行直接比较。 神经元的选择性和感知选择性的行为措施，同时评估在相同的 条件 拟议的研究构成了一个丰富的交织收集心理物理，神经生理和 理解空间和时间视觉的理论方法。这些实验将产生一个 关于灵长类动物视觉系统的时空调谐的前所未有的全面数据。 这些数据将用于进一步了解感觉处理的机制，并将提供 深入了解由创伤、疾病和大脑发育障碍引起的视觉病理。 !

Abstract One of the most important questions in neuroscience today concerns the mechanisms by which sensory neurons give rise to perceptual experience. There are many ways to address this question, which have long populated the field of visual neuroscience. Prominent among them is the study of visual selectivity. Observers are highly sensitive to some visual stimuli and less sensitive to others. Visual neurons are also highly selective: Each responds to a limited range of stimuli along several stimulus dimensions. The proposed research aims to understand how the selective pattern of neuronal responses accounts for the observer’s selective perceptual experience and discriminative capacity. This understanding will be achieved through experiments that first evaluate patterns of neuronal selectivity for visual stimuli that vary in their spatial and temporal properties. Second, these data, in combination with manipulations of stimulus context, will be used to develop a novel mechanistic account of neuronal selectivity based on activity within cortical visual circuits stabilized by inhibition. Finally, to understand how neuronal selectivity underlies perceptual experience, direct comparisons will be made between physiological measures of neuronal selectivity and behavioral measures of perceptual selectivity, assessed concurrently under identical conditions. The proposed research constitutes a richly interwoven collection of psychophysical, neurophysiological and theoretical approaches to understanding of spatial and temporal vision. The experiments will yield an unprecedented body of comprehensive data regarding the spatiotemporal tuning of the primate visual system. These data will be used to further understanding of the mechanisms of sensory processing and will provide insights into pathologies of vision caused by trauma, disease and developmental disorders of the brain. !