DIENCEPHALIC MECHANISMS OF VISUOMOTOR INTEGRATION

本提案的总体目标是， 产生自主运动的神经机制 感官目标我们对感官线索的反应容易掩盖了 高度的计算复杂性，现在已知 高度分布的神经网络，涉及主要的大脑区域， 这种能力。我们理解这一过程的基础是 确定该网络中的活动如何编排， 行动是及时和适当的， 情节了解感觉与运动的联系是如何被门控的 这是一个重大的实验挑战，但一个 这将最终导致一个更基本的理解， 正常和病理性感觉运动行为。在这方面， 越来越多的人认识到，功能障碍，如观察到的， 帕金森病，或感觉忽视综合征，不是纯粹的 运动或感觉起源，而是一个复杂的感觉运动， 扰动 这项拟议中的研究使用了清醒行为的灵长类动物准备，视觉， 和眼神经系统作为感觉运动功能的模型， 重点是视丘丘脑的活动， 在感觉运动接口的轨迹。根据它的解剖结构 与皮质和皮质下视区、眼视区的关系 丘脑被认为在大脑中起着“中央控制器”的作用， 这个广泛分布的网络。使用细胞外单个单位 记录和一系列的行为任务，旨在测试不同的 在感觉运动功能方面，所提出的实验试图 阐明眼丘脑对感觉神经元的相对贡献， 驱动运动行为。

The broad objective of this proposal is to provide insights into the neural mechanisms underlying the generation of voluntary movement toward sensory goals. The ease with which we respond to sensory cues belies a high degree of computational complexity and it is now known that a highly distributed neural network, involving main brain areas, underlies this ability. Fundamental to our understanding of this process is a determination of how activity in this network is orchestrated so that actions are both timely and appropriate for a given set of circumstances. Understanding how the sensory to motor linkage is gated by behavioral context represents a major experimental challenge, but one that will ultimately lead to a more fundamental understanding of both normal and pathological sensorimotor behavior. In this regard, there is a growing appreciation that dysfunction, such as that observed with Parkinson's disease, or sensory neglect syndromes, is not of purely motor or sensory origin, but instead, a complex sensorimotor disturbance. The proposed study uses the awake behaving primate preparation, vision, and the oculomotor system as a model for sensorimotor function and focuses on activity in oculomotor thalamus as a potential important locus at the sensorimotor interface. Based on its anatomical relationships to cortical and subcortical visuomotor areas, oculomotor thalamus has been suggested to play the role of "central controller" in this broadly distributed network. Using extracellular single-unit recording and a series of behavioral tasks designed to test different aspects of sensorimotor function, the proposed experiments seek to elucidate the relative contributions of oculomotor thalamus to sensory- driven motor behavior.