fMRI and neuronal activity in awake behaving macaques

描述（由申请人提供）： 最近，基于功能性磁共振成像（fMRI）和相关技术，对人类大脑的认识有了巨大的增长。不幸的是，功能性磁共振成像并不能直接测量神经活动，它只能测量邻近血管对感兴趣的神经活动的反应。如果没有额外的信息，很难解释神经元本身的局部电活动。拟议的实验旨在填补这一知识空白，直接比较神经活动的功能磁共振成像结果，在清醒的行为猕猴。我们计划三个具体的目标，在视觉皮层的高阶区域，作为一个“自下而上”的方法来理解在不同层次的信息处理复杂性的fMRI神经反应的关系。首先，在初级视觉皮层（V1区），我们将重新测试以前的预测神经功能磁共振成像的关系在清醒的行为猕猴，并比较视网膜（视野）坐标的电和功能磁共振成像活动的程度。其次，我们将测试神经功能磁共振成像的关系，在MT，专门用于处理视觉运动的视觉区，使用运动适应揭示方向选择性反应。最后，我们将测试神经功能磁共振成像的关系，在视觉皮层的高阶区域，似乎是专门处理面部和其他视觉对象。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Recently there has been an enormous increase in knowledge about the human brain, based on functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and related techniques. Unfortunately, fMRI does not measure neural activity directly; it only measures the response of adjacent blood vessels to the neural activity of interest. Without additional information it is difficult to interpret the local electrical activity of the neurons themselves. The proposed experiments are designed to fill this knowledge gap by directly comparing neural activity to the fMRI results, in awake behaving macaque monkeys. We plan three specific aims, in progressively higher-order regions of visual cortex, as a 'bottom-up' approach to understanding the fMRI-neural response relationship at different levels of information processing complexity. First, in primary visual cortex (area V1), we will re-test previous predictions about the neural-fMRI relationship in awake behaving macaques, and compare the extent of electrical and fMRI activity in retinotopic (visual field) coordinates. Secondly we will test the neural-fMRI relationship in MT, a visual area specialized for processing visual motion, using motion adaptation to reveal direction-selective responses. Finally, we will test the neural-fMRI relationship in a higher-order region of visual cortex which appears to be specialized for processing faces and other visual objects.