DIRECTIONALLY SENSITIVE INPUT TO OCULOMOTOR PATHWAYS

请求为ADAMHA RSDA二级提供资金， 调查员（P.I.）来研究定向的功能作用， 敏感（DS）细胞在视觉诱发行为中起作用。 私家侦探处于 他的第四年。作为一个助理。教授后4年。作为博士后 家伙. 现在他的实验室已经建立， 学术界减缓了他的直接实验目标以及他的长期目标 专业成长。这个奖项将释放私家侦探。从其他承付款 允许开发独特的神经科学方法， 理解信息处理和感觉运动整合。 P.I.的研究目标以及行为学系 神经科学旨在理解大脑的控制 通过使用当前的神经科学方法。 私家侦探将吸引 凭借他所在部门的大量神经科学专业知识， 匹兹堡大学致力于开发体外 脑神经生理学，并将其与他的方法联合收割机结合起来， 药理学和完整系统的感受野分析。 DS视网膜神经节细胞是眼睛的输出神经元， 选择性地对仅在一个方向上移动的刺激物。 他们将 作为一种可能的输入到一个复杂的大脑系统， 通过控制眼睛的位置在视网膜上成像。 私家侦探目前 资助进行实验，比较神经元的反应， 麻醉动物与清醒动物中的视动性眼球震颤（OKN）的关系。 不过，最近，一种使用海龟的体外制剂正在 为眼科研究而开发。 这种制剂具有独特的 整个系统保持完整和可行的优势，使DS 体外大脑中的细胞对投射的视觉刺激做出反应 贴在眼睛上 这些反射的体外研究方法的发展 行为需要新的技巧 完善这些技术 将为研究大脑的控制提供新的工具 而不是行为 这些实验可以涉及感觉运动 从感觉特征提取的细胞基础到 将感觉通路会聚到运动输出通路上。 OKN视觉图像的稳定是一个简单的模型， 运动行为 在人类中，一种相关的眼球运动功能障碍 是精神分裂症的征兆 眼科控制的知识可能 进一步OKN的诊断有用性， 正常人和疾病患者的眼动行为的中枢控制 states.

Funds are requested for an ADAMHA RSDA Level II to enable the principle investigator (P.I.) to investigate the functional role that directionally sensitive (DS) cells play in visually evoked behaviors. The P.I. is in his 4th yr. as an Asst. Professor following 4 yrs. as a Postdoctoral Fellow. Now that his laboratory is established, the constraints of academia slow his immediate experimental goals as well as his long-term professional growth. This award will free the P.I. from other commitments to allow for the development of unique neuroscience approaches to the understanding of information processing and sensory-motor integration. The research goals of the P.I. and the Department of Behavior Neuroscience are directed towards an understanding of the brain's control of behavior by using current neuroscience approaches. The P.I. will draw upon the considerable neuroscience expertise of his department and the University of Pittsburgh at large to development techniques of in vitro brain neurophysiology and combine them with his approaches of pharmacology and receptive field analysis of an intact system. DS retinal ganglion cells are output neurons of the eye that respond selectively to stimuli moving only in one direction. They will be studied as a possible input to a complex brain system which stabilizes images on the retina by controlling eye position. The P.I. is currently funded to perform experiments which compare neuronal responses in the anaesthetized animal to optokinetic nystagmus (OKN) in the awake animal. Recently though, an in vitro preparation using the turtle is being developed for oculomotor research. This preparation has the unique advantage that the entire system remains intact and viable, so that DS cells in the extracorporeal brain respond to visual stimuli projected onto the attached eyes. The development of in vitro approaches to the study of these reflex behaviors require new skills for the P.I. Perfecting these techniques will produce new tools to use in investigations of the brain's control over behavior. These experiments can then involve sensory-motor integration from the cellular basis of sensory feature extraction to the convergence of sensory pathways onto motor output pathways. Stabilization of the visual image by OKN is a simple model of a sensory- motor behavior. In humans, a disorder of a related eye movement function is an indication of schizophrenia. Knowledge of oculomotor control may further OKN's diagnostic usefulness by differentiating between retinal and central control of eye movement behaviors in normal and disease states.