DIENCEPHALIC MECHANISMS OF VISUOMOTOR INTEGRATION

这项提案的广泛目标是提供对 自发运动产生的神经机制 感官目标。我们对感官暗示做出反应的轻松程度掩盖了 高度的计算复杂性，现在已经知道一个 高度分布的神经网络，涉及主要的大脑区域，是基础 这种能力。我们对这一过程理解的基础是 确定如何协调此网络中的活动，以便 对于给定的一组 情况。了解感觉到运动的连接是如何门控的 从行为背景来看，这是一个重大的实验挑战，但也是 这最终将导致对两者更根本的理解 正常和病态的感觉运动行为。在这方面，有 越来越多的人认识到，功能障碍，如 帕金森氏症，或感觉疏忽综合症，并不是纯粹的 运动或感觉起源，而不是复杂的感觉运动 骚乱。 这项拟议的研究使用了清醒的灵长类动物的准备，视力， 动眼系统作为感觉运动功能的模型， 重点关注动眼丘脑的活动作为潜在的重要 感觉运动界面上的轨迹。基于它的解剖结构 皮质和皮质下视觉运动区、动眼神经的关系 丘脑被认为在中枢神经系统中扮演“中央控制器”的角色。 这个分布广泛的网络。使用细胞外单单位 记录和一系列行为任务旨在测试不同 在感觉运动功能方面，拟议的实验试图 阐明动眼丘脑对感觉的相对贡献 驱动的运动行为。

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.