Time course of learning perceptual pop-out in V1 and V2

项目描述（申请人提供）：本项目主要研究视觉皮层感知学习的神经基础。尽管视觉皮层的可塑性已被充分证明，但视觉神经元可塑性的时间过程和发生的各种变化尚未得到充分表征。本实验旨在通过监测皮层神经元反应相对于行为改变的时间过程的演变，探讨广泛训练导致的视觉可塑性的发展和本质。心理测量和神经测量对比反应函数的变化以及神经元集合内相关性的变化将作为更敏感的可塑性测量方法进行探索。了解训练导致的大脑皮层变化的机制对于治疗各种脑损伤的人可能非常重要。特别是，中风和其他局灶性脑病变的治疗可以从本提案的研究中获得启示。此外，了解视觉皮层可塑性的极限对于理解弱视等疾病也很重要，弱视是由于视觉障碍导致的已知皮层变化。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This project focuses on the neural basis of perceptual learning in visual cortex. Although plasticity has been well documented in visual cortex, the time course of plasticity and the kinds of changes that occur in visual neurons have not been fully characterized. The proposed experiments aim to explore the development and nature of visual plasticity due to extensive training by monitoring the evolution of cortical neuronal responses relative to the time course of behavioral change. The change of psychometric and neurometric contrast response functions and the change in correlation within neuronal ensembles will be explored as more sensitive measures of plasticity. An understanding of the mechanisms of change in the cerebral cortex as a result of training is potentially very important for the medical treatment of humans with various kinds of brain damage. In particular, the treatment of strokes and other focal brain lesions can gain insight from the research in this proposal. In addition, knowledge of the limits of visual cortical plasticity are important in understanding diseases such as amblyopia, in which there are known changes in the cortex as a result of a visual impairment.