Auditory and Integrative Processes in Prefrontal Cortex

描述(申请人提供)：听觉和视觉刺激的整合对于通过视觉和声音识别物体、有效沟通和在我们复杂的世界中导航至关重要。虽然听觉和视觉信息在人脑的许多部位结合在一起，但额叶被认为是与记忆和语言相关的区域，依赖于复杂的听觉和视觉刺激的多感觉整合。以前对非人类灵长类动物的研究揭示了腹侧前额叶皮质中视觉和听觉处理的并列和重叠区域，最近我们观察到对面部和声音联合刺激做出反应的神经元，这表明可能在多模式感觉整合中发挥作用。这个项目的目标是对腹侧前额叶皮质如何处理复杂的听觉、视觉和组合的视听刺激有一个基本的了解，这些刺激服务于有意义的交流和物体识别。我们的实验将集中在灵长类动物腹前额叶皮质的神经生理学和解剖学分析上。在目标1中，我们将表征前额叶单单位电生理反应对面孔、发声和面孔发声联合刺激的选择性、特异性和组织性。我们的研究将使用静态(脸部图片)和动态(短片)自然刺激结合发声。在目标2中，我们将研究跨模式记忆任务中感觉整合的细胞机制，以及在该任务中学习视听联系过程中发生的细胞变化。最后，我们将通过确定前额叶腹侧听觉、视觉和多模式区域的传入和传出连接来阐明额叶听觉、视觉和多模式反应背后的神经元回路。由于我们的研究旨在确定感知复杂交流刺激及其整合的前额神经机制，我们的研究结果将对理解影响沟通、语言和感觉整合的神经障碍具有启示意义。这些障碍包括精神分裂症和自闭症，其中前额叶皮质功能障碍已被描述。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The integration of auditory and visual stimuli is crucial for recognizing objects by sight and sound, communicating effectively, and navigating through our complex world. While auditory and visual information are combined in many sites of the human brain, the frontal lobes have been identified as a region associated with memory and language, which depend on multisensory integration of complex auditory and visual stimuli. Previous studies in non-human primates have revealed juxtaposed and overlapping areas of visual and auditory processing in the ventral prefrontal cortex, and recently we have observed neurons that respond to combined face and vocal stimuli indicating a possible role in multimodal sensory integration. The goal of this project is to obtain a fundamental understanding of how the ventral prefrontal cortex processes complex auditory, visual and combined audio-visual stimuli which serve meaningful communication and object recognition. Our experiments will focus on the neurophysiological and anatomical analysis of the primate ventral prefrontal cortex. In Aim 1, we will characterize the selectivity, specificity and organization of prefrontal single-unit electrophysiological responses to face, vocalization and combined face-vocalization stimuli. Our studies will utilize both static (picture of face) and dynamic (short movie) natural stimuli combined with vocalizations. In Aim 2, we will examine the cellular mechanisms which underlie sensory integration in a cross-modal memory task and the cellular changes which take place during the learning of audio-visual associations in this task. Finally, we will elucidate the neuronal circuitry underlying auditory, visual and multimodal responses in the frontal lobes by determining the afferent and efferent connections of auditory, visual and multimodal regions of the ventral prefrontal cortex. Since our studies are aimed at determining the prefrontal neuronal mechanisms underlying the perception of complex communication stimuli and their integration, our findings will have implications for understanding neurological disorders which affect communication, language and sensory integration. These disorders include schizophrenia and autism in which disturbance of prefrontal cortical function has been described.