ATTENTION AND TACTILE PROCESSING IN SOMATOSENSORY CORTEX

描述(改编自申请人的摘要)：注意力和触觉 在体感系统中进行处理。请提供资金以继续我们的 关于选择性注意如何影响被试反应的研究 躯体感觉系统中的神经元。这些研究的广泛目的是 确定形状加工的神经机制 体感系统。在这项提案中，我们将重点放在确定如何 有关与上多个位置接触的边的方向的信息 两只手相互作用。这项研究建立在我们之前的发现基础上，表明：1) 在大脑的第二躯体感觉(SII)皮层有一个强健的表达。 接触多个手指的边缘的方向，以及2)大多数神经元 在SII中，受动物注意力集中的影响。第一个目标是 确定指垫内部和跨指垫的单边和多边的显示方式 相同和相反的手在躯体感觉系统中被代表。在……里面 这些研究，我们记录了来自3b，1，2区和Sii皮质的神经元 执行视觉辨别任务的动物，同时 刺激近、中、远指骨的不同组合 在两只手的手指2-4上，有单方向或多方向的边缘。这些 实验将确定边缘信息是如何跨数字整合的。 第二个目标是确定选择性注意如何影响 当呈现单边和多边时的边缘信息表示 传到手中。在实验期间，边缘将被放置在内部和 当动物进行触觉操作时，神经元的感受野之外 辨别任务。在一些实验中，动物将被训练成 辨别单边的方向，在其他情况下，动物将被 经训练以比较同时呈现的两条边的方向 那双手。这些实验将确定选择性注意如何改变 神经元的感受野结构，并将决定神经元是否 在较高水平的躯体感觉皮质中，调谐到连贯的边缘 跨多位数。

DESCRIPTION (adapted from applicant's abstract): Attention and tactile processing in the somatosensory system. Funds are requested to continue our studies on understanding how selective attention effects the responses of neurons in the somatosensory system. The broad aim of these studies is to determine the neural mechanisms underlying shape processing in the somatosensory system. In this proposal, we focus our efforts on determining how information about the orientation of edges contacting multiple locations on the two hands interact. The study builds on our previous findings showing that: 1) There is a robust representation in the second somatosensory (SII) cortex of the orientation of edges contacting multiple digits, and 2) Most of the neurons in SII are affected by the animal's focus of attention. The first aim is to determine how single and multiple edges presented within and across finger pads of the same and opposite hands are represented in the somatosensory system. In these studies, we record from neurons in areas 3b, 1, 2 and SII cortex in animals performing a visual discrimination task, while simultaneously stimulating different combinations of the proximal, middle and distal phalanges on digits 2-4 on both hands with single or multiple oriented edges. These experiments will determine how edge information is integrated across digits. The second aim is to determine how selective attention affects the representation of edge information when single and multiple edges are presented to the hands. During the experiment, the edges will be placed both inside and outside the neuron's receptive field while animals perform tactile discrimination tasks. In some experiments, animals will be trained to discriminate the orientation of single edges, and in others, animals will be trained to compare the orientations of two edges presented simultaneously to the hands. These experiments will determine how selective attention modifies the receptive field structures of neurons, and will determine whether neurons at higher levels in the somatosensory cortex are tuned to coherent edges that span multiple digits.