NEURAL BASIS OF VISUAL PATTERN APPEARANCE

描述(改编自调查人员摘要)：我们建议使用 功能性磁共振成像(FMRI)联合应用 心理物理实验建立了知觉外表之间的联系 以及人类视皮层的神经活动。建议的目标是 研究是为了理解神经计算介导的视觉模式 外表。我们假设受试者的心理物理判断 图案的外观由神经活动反映，特别是视觉 大脑区域。因为刺激和任务都是相似的 提出的实验，我们预计这些大脑中的神经活动 各领域将被证明是心理物理表现的良好预测因子。 实验的结果。功能磁共振成像(FMRI)非常 非常适合这个目标。功能磁共振成像是一种可以使用的非侵入性技术 测量整个人脑枕叶的神经活动 空间分辨率约为2毫米。功能磁共振成像可用于识别 视网膜组织的视觉大脑区域，以便后续数据可以 在每个视觉区域内分别进行分析。成功地演示了 利用功能磁共振成像建立模式视觉的神经基础将有利于 整个神经科学界通过为各种各样的 知觉和认知的类似功能磁共振研究。要对未来充满信心 为了实现这一目标，我们必须论证使用的可行性 功能磁共振成像定量表征人类大脑皮层的神经生理学。 因此，几个拟议的功能磁共振实验旨在测量 已经与其他人一起探索过的生理现象 技术(单单元记录、光学成像、视觉诱发电位)。成功 证明功能磁共振准确地反映了潜在的神经活动 将有助于引领这项新技术的更强大的应用。

DESCRIPTION (Adapted from the Investigator's Abstract): We propose to use functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in conjunction with psychophysical experiments to establish a link between perceptual appearance and neural activity in human visual cortex. The goal of the proposed research is to understand the neural computations mediated visual pattern appearance. We hypothesize that subjects' psychophysical judgments about pattern appearance are reflected by neural activity in particular visual brain areas. Because the stimuli and the tasks are similar across the proposed experiments, we expect that the neural activity in these brain areas will prove to be good predictors of psychophysical performance in all of the experiments. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is very well-suited for this goal. FMRI is a noninvasive technique that can be used to measure neural activity throughout the occipital lobe of the human brain at a spatial resolution of roughly 2 mm. FMRI can be used to identify the retinotopically organized visual brain areas, so that subsequent data can be analyzed separately within each visual area. A successful demonstration of using fMRI to establish the neural basis of pattern vision would benefit the entire neuroscience community by opening the door for a wide variety of analogous fMRI studies of perception and cognition. To be confident in the proposed approach to this goal, we must demonstrate the feasibility of using fMRI to quantitatively characterize the neurophysiology of human cortex. Therefore, several of the proposed fMRI experiments are designed to measure physiological phenomena that have already been explored with other techniques (single unit recording, optical imaging, VEP). Successful demonstrations that fMRI accurately reflects the underlying neural activity would help lead the way to more powerful uses of this new technology.