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知觉学习的神经基础。虽然可塑性在视觉皮层已经有了很好的记录，但可塑性的时间过程和视觉神经元中发生的变化还没有完全表征。拟议的实验旨在探索的发展和性质的视觉可塑性，由于广泛的培训，通过监测皮层神经元的反应相对于行为变化的时间过程的演变。心理测量和神经测量对比度反应功能的变化以及神经元集合内相关性的变化将作为可塑性的更敏感的指标进行探讨。了解训练导致的大脑皮层变化机制，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这项建议的研究中获得见解。此外，了解视觉皮层可塑性的局限性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.