SENSORIMOTOR INTEGRATION AND SPATIALLY GUIDED BEHAVIOR

描述（改编自申请人的摘要）：空间感知和 空间引导行为是人类健康功能的核心， 更广泛地了解这些过程将有助于治疗， 康复时，他们不能正常发展或打破通过 疾病 本研究提案中描述的研究将产生数据 这些都促进了我们对听觉信息处理的理解， 听觉空间的知觉组织和空间引导行为。 结合行为学和神经生理学实验， 一项研究计划利用了回声定位的声学成像系统， 蝙蝠，一种依赖于动态听觉的空间分析的动物 引导其行为的场景。 三个相互关联的研究方向是 建议：1）感知研究2）适应行为研究，和3）神经 感觉运动研究 知觉实验将仔细检查 通过整合和流分离的听觉场景分析 声音信息的变化。 适应性运动实验将利用 蝙蝠的头部瞄准、耳廓调整和目标发声模式 跟踪任务，以研究依赖于 听觉场景的空间分析 感觉运动机制实验 将着重于中脑上级的功能组织 丘，一种神经结构，被认为在转化 将多模态感觉信息转化为传递到脑干结构的信号 控制适当的定向反应。 细胞外记录将 检查编码的神经活动的时空模式， 声刺激的方向和距离，以及微刺激 实验将探索局部神经群体的激活如何指导 回声定位蝙蝠的定向行为。 行为 实验将研究上级丘损伤对 目标测距、跟踪和定位所需的感觉运动综合 蝙蝠的拦截 产生的专门化和一般原则 从该模型系统获得的数据可以用于开发更广泛的 理解支持知觉组织的机制， 空间导向的行为，被认为是重要的因素， 在不同的感觉形态和不同的动物物种中。

DESCRIPTION (adapted from applicant's abstract): Spatial perception and spatially-guided behavior are central to the healthy functioning of humans, and a broader knowledge of these processes will facilitate treatment and rehabilitation when they fail to develop normally or break down through disease. The studies described in this research proposal will yield data that advance our general understanding of auditory information processing, the perceptual organization of auditory space and spatially-guided behavior. Combining behavioral and neurophysiological experiments, the proposed research program exploits the acoustic imaging system of the echolocating bat, an animal that relies on the spatial analysis of dynamic auditory scenes to guide its behavior. Three inter-related lines of research are proposed: 1) perceptual studies 2) adaptive behavior studies, and 3) neural sensorimotor studies. Perceptual experiments will closely examine the analysis of auditory scenes through the integration and stream segregation of acoustic information over time. Adaptive motor experiments will utilize the bat's head-aim, pinna adjustments and vocalization patterns in target tracking tasks to study perceptually-guided behaviors that depend upon the spatial analysis of auditory scenes. Experiments on sensorimotor mechanisms will focus on the functional organization of the midbrain superior colliculus, a neural structure believed to play a role in transforming polymodal sensory information into signals relayed to brainstem structures that control appropriate orienting responses. Extracellular recording will examine the spatio-temporal patterns of neural activity that encode the direction and distance of an acoustic stimulus, and microstimulation experiments will explore how activation of local neural populations directs orientation-specific behaviors in the echolocating bat. Behavioral experiments will study the effect of superior colliculus lesions on the sensorimotor integration required for target ranging, tracking and interception by bats. Specializations and general principles arising out of the data obtained from this model system can be used to develop a broader understanding of the mechanisms that support perceptual organization and spatially-guided behavior, factors that are believed to hold importance across sensory modalities and in a variety of animal species.