TRANSCALLOSAL INTEGRATION OF INFORMATION IN RATS

这个项目的首要目标是确定神经活动如何在躯体感觉皮质之间整合，以形成对双侧触觉刺激的统一感知。由于最近的证据表明，大鼠体感觉皮层对双侧刺激有反应，因此本文将大鼠体感觉系统作为研究皮层间整合的模型系统。然而，关于这些皮质区域之间的神经活动的相互作用以及这些相互作用被认为是基础的感觉的行为意义，人们知之甚少。为了解决皮质间整合的本质，长期植入两个体感皮质的多电极阵列将允许进行单个单位的整体记录，而麻醉和清醒的行为大鼠双侧胡须刺激的空间和时间方面在参数上是不同的。在特定的AIM I中，麻醉大鼠对双侧刺激的神经元反应将被用来预测在特定AIM II中测试的关于在双侧触觉辨别任务中训练的大鼠的行为表现。通过将多点记录与需要两个大脑皮层合作的行为任务相结合，我们将能够将整体活动与动物的心理物理表现联系起来。

The overlying goal of this project is to determine how neural activity is integrated between the somatosensory cortices to form a unified percept of a bilateral, tactile stimulus. As recent evidence shows that the somatosensory cortices are responsive to bilateral stimuli, the rat somatosensory system is used here as a model system in studying intercortical integration. However, little is know about the interactions of neural activity between these cortical areas and the behavioral significance of sensory percepts that these interactions are thought to underlie. To address the nature of intercortical integration, multi-electrode arrays chronically implanted into both somatosensory cortices will allow ensembles of single unit recordings to be made while the spatial and temporal aspects of bilateral whisker stimuli in both anesthitized and awake, behaving rats is parametrically varied. In Specific AIM I, neuronal responses to bilateral stimuli in the anesthitized rat will be used to make predictions tested in the Specific AIM II regarding the behavioral performance of rats trained in bilateral tactile discrimination tasks. By combining multi-site recordings with behavioral tasks that necessitate the cooperativity of both cortices, we will be able to correlate ensemble activity to the psychophysical performance of the animal.