FUNCTIONAL BRAIN ORGANIZATION

该项目的长期目标是研究精神分裂症的神经机制 意志与神经和认知信息处理的变化 在人类衰老过程中。利用功能磁共振成像(MRI)， 我们将研究基底神经节的组织原理和 年轻人和老年人的大脑皮层。那我们就会 检验衰老是否修改了假想的变化 这些脑区的功能结构在 重复感觉刺激和运动能力、运动技能 学习和条件性运动联想。 第一个实验比较了年轻人的相对脑血流量。 和老年人制定基底节和 大脑皮层组织。目前，仍然存在不确定性。 关于基底节和大脑的精确功能组织 年轻人或老年人在简单感觉过程中出现的皮层 和运动任务。我们希望观察到一种独特的激活模式 临床表现过程中的几个皮质和基底节区域 躯体感觉刺激和执行简单的运动动作。一个 这些实验的具体假设是基本大脑 衰老过程中的表征模式与年轻人的相似。一个 对这些实验的预测是位置、大小和强度 躯体感觉刺激和运动的激活模式 随着年龄的增长，任务不会有所不同。 第二组实验验证了衰老的假设 降低神经适应性。这些实验检查了大脑 在重复的触觉刺激、运动中发生的激活 重复，形成视觉-运动条件性联想，以及 获取序列模式。对这些的具体预测 实验表明，衰老会改变大脑的激活模式 在这些“学习”任务中。 这些实验将证明衰老在多大程度上 改变发生在基底节内的神经表现 以及运动学习期间的大脑皮层。适用于 实验结果应该能够评估发生在 脑生理学不仅在人类的衰老中，而且在发育中， 神经功能障碍和精神疾病。了解 学习的基底节和大脑皮层基础，视觉运动 联想和顺序模式应能促进康复 局灶性脑损伤和神经退行性变患者的治疗策略 和精神疾病。

The project's long term goals are to study neural mechanisms of volition and how neural and cognitive information processing changes in human aging. With functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), we will investigate organizing principles of the basal ganglia and cerebral cortex in young and aged human adults. Then we will examine whether aging modifies hypothesized changes in the functional architecture of these brain regions that occurs during repeated sensory stimulation and motor performance, motor skill learning, and conditional motor associations. The first experiment compares relative cerebral blood flow in young and aged adults to develop baseline measures of basal ganglia and cerebral cortical organization. Currently, there remains uncertainty about the precise functional organization of basal ganglia and cerebral cortex in both young or aged adults that occurs during simple sensory and motor tasks. We expect to observe unique activation patterns in a several cortical and basal ganglia regions during presentation of somatic sensory stimuli and performance of simple motor actions. A specific hypothesis of these experiments is that basic brain representation patterns in aging remain similar to those in youth. A prediction of these experiments is the location, size and intensity of activation patterns occurring for somatic sensory stimulation and motor tasks does not differ across aging. A second group of experiments tests the hypothesis that aging diminishes neural adaptation. The experiments examine brain activation occurring during repeated tactile stimulation, movement repetition, formation of visual-motor conditional associations, and acquiring sequential patterns. A specific prediction of these experiments is that aging changes the activation patterns occurring during these "learning" tasks. The experiments will demonstrate the extent to which aging may change the neural representations occurring within the basal ganglia and cerebral cortex during motor learning. Application of the experimental results should enable evaluation of changes occurring in brain physiology not only in human aging, but also in development, neurologic dysfunction, and psychiatric diseases. Understanding the basal ganglia and cerebral cortical basis of learning, visual motor associations, and sequential patterns should enhance rehabilitative strategies for patients with focal brain injury and neurodegenerative and psychiatric diseases.