Functional Imaging of Decision Networks

描述(由申请人提供)：根据抽象范畴做出决定的能力是更高层次认知的基本组成部分，对生存至关重要。在过去的十年里，通过视觉心理物理学和单单位神经生理学的结合，在理解分类决策方面取得了很大进展，研究对象是清醒的、行为正常的猴子。这项工作导致了对顶叶、额叶和颞下皮质决策网络的更清晰的理解。然而，有两个非常基本的问题仍然没有得到解决。首先，当猴子参与决策任务时，单个单位研究针对的特定大脑区域的活动与大脑激活的整体模式有何关系？处理这类决定还涉及哪些其他地区，这些地区发挥什么作用？第二，来自非人类灵长类动物的结果适用于人类吗？具体地说，考虑到相同的心理物理任务，我们能在人类和非人类灵长类动物的大脑之间建立功能同源性吗？为了回答这些问题，我们建议在清醒行为的猴子身上使用功能性磁共振成像来绘制在知觉分类任务中激活的大脑区域，使用的范式与人类受试者使用的范式相同。拟议中的实验将开辟一条研究认知过程的新途径，这些过程在精神分裂症、注意力缺陷障碍、帕金森病和阿尔茨海默病中显著受损。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The ability to make decisions based on abstract categories is a fundamental component of higher-order cognition and is essential for survival. In the past decade, much progress in understanding categorical decision-making has been made through the combination of visual psychophysics and single-unit neurophysiology in awake, behaving monkeys. This work has led to a clearer understanding of decision networks in parietal, frontal and inferotemporal cortex. However, two very basic questions remain unresolved. First, how does activity in specific brain regions targeted by single unit studies relate to the overall pattern of brain activation when monkeys are engaged in decision-making tasks? What additional regions also are involved in processing such decisions, and what role do such regions play? Second, are results from non-human primates applicable to humans? Specifically, given identical psychophysical tasks, can we establish functional homology between human and non-human primate brains? To answer these questions, we propose to use functional magnetic resonance imaging in awake behaving monkeys to map brain regions that are activated during a perceptual categorization task, using a paradigm identical to one used with human subjects. The proposed experiments will open up a new avenue of research into cognitive processes that are dramatically impaired in schizophrenia, attention-deficit disorder, Parkinson's disease, and Alzheimer's disease.