Cortical control of the eye and arm in humans & monkeys

描述(申请人提供)：人类和猴子都有一种高度发达的能力，可以引导眼睛和手臂朝着太空中的物体准确移动，这一能力主要在大脑皮层实现。通过猕猴的单神经元电生理学和人类的代谢成像(如功能磁共振成像[fMRI]和PET)，已经研究了大脑对眼睛和手臂引导的控制。直到最近，从人类和猴子身上获得的数据还不能直接进行比较，因为神经元活动和代谢活动之间的相关性尚未得到确定。为了解决这个问题，我们建议在清醒、表现为人类和猴子的情况下进行平行实验。人类和猴子将在非常匹配的fMRI环境中执行眼睛和手臂运动任务。拟议实验的目标有两个：(1)我们将测试每个物种中关于眼睛和手臂控制的大脑组织的具体假设，特别强调定位眼手协调的神经底物。(2)我们将通过比较在相似条件下从猴子和人类身上获得的数据来研究这两个物种的皮质组织之间的潜在同源性。我们的结果可能会增强我们对人类和非人类灵长类动物更高的大脑功能的理解，并将对解释在人类身上进行的神经成像实验特别有价值。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Humans and monkeys share a highly-developed capacity to guide accurate movements of the eye and arm toward objects in space, a capacity which is largely implemented in the cerebral cortex. Cortical control of eye and arm guidance have been studied through single-neuron electrophysiology in macaque monkeys and metabolic imaging (e.g. functional magnetic resonance imaging [fMRI] and PET) in humans. Until recently, data obtained from humans and monkeys could not be directly compared, since the correlation between neuronal and metabolic activity has yet to be firmly established. To address this issue, we propose to conduct parallel experiments in awake, behaving humans and monkeys. Humans and monkeys will perform eye and arm movement tasks in closely matched fMRI environments. The goals for the proposed experiments are twofold: (1) We will test specific hypotheses concerning the cerebral organization of eye and arm control in each species, with particular emphasis on localizing the neural substrates for eye-hand coordination. (2) We will investigate potential homologies between cortical organization in monkeys and humans by comparing data obtained from the two species under similar conditions. Our results are likely to enhance our understanding of higher brain function in both human and non-human primates, and will be of particular value in interpreting neuroimaging experiments conducted in humans.