CORTICAL CIRCUIT BASIS OF VISUAL SPATIAL PROCESSING

描述(申请人提供)：阐明感知和认知的生物学基础一直是神经科学研究的持久目标，因为它对于治疗可能摧毁思考和行动能力的大脑障碍至关重要。更高级的心理过程传统上被归因于前额叶皮质，这是高级灵长类动物和人类大脑中最发达的部分。然而，近年来，人们已经清楚地看到，许多与心理功能相关的神经并不是前额叶的专有特征，而是在投射到它的皮质通路中已经很明显，例如，颞叶和顶叶的关联区。因此，揭示这些皮质区域的独特和协作作用对于理解高级心理功能的生物学基础是必要的。更少人知道神经处理的回路组织和性质在高阶皮质区域之间是如何不同的，从而解释它们不同的功能作用。我们建议使用一个综合的方法论框架来阐明与视觉空间信息处理相关的区域的独特和协作作用。我们将比较研究背侧、前额叶和顶叶后皮质的生理反应和神经回路组织。我们的实验将利用对猴子进行训练以执行视觉空间任务的密集电极阵列的神经生理学记录。我们将研究同时或顺序呈现多个视觉刺激时的神经反应模式，并分析神经元之间的功能相互作用。实验将专门测试前额叶皮质的特征是更强大、分布更广泛或动态调节的神经元连接，还是功能专门化的细胞类型。这些实验将有助于揭示与高级认知功能有关的皮质区域的功能专门化，并为正常的知觉处理以及脑损伤和精神疾病的后果提供见解。公共卫生相关性了解调节高级认知过程的皮质区域的组织和功能是改善可摧毁人的思考和行动能力的障碍的关键。这项拟议的研究将依靠灵长类动物模型来确定大脑皮层中参与视觉空间信息处理的两个区域--后顶叶和背侧前额叶皮质--的作用和功能专门化。

Description (provided by applicant): Elucidating the biological basis of perception and cognition has been an enduring goal of neuroscience research because it is essential for treating brain disorders that can devastate the ability to think and act. Higher mental processes have traditionally been attributed to the prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain most developed in higher primates and humans. In recent years, however, it has become clear that many neural correlates of mental functions are not exclusive traits of the prefrontal cortex but are already evident in the cortical pathways that project to it, for example, the association areas of the temporal and parietal lobes. Uncovering the unique and cooperative roles of these cortical regions is therefore necessary for understanding the biological basis of higher mental functions. Even less is known about how the circuit organization and nature of neural processing differs between high-order cortical areas, so as to account for their distinct functional roles. We propose to use an integrative methodological framework to elucidate the unique and cooperative roles of areas involved with the processing of visual-spatial information. We will comparatively investigate the physiological responses and neural-circuit organization of the dorsal prefrontal and posterior parietal cortex. Our experiments will make use of neurophysiological recordings with arrays of closely-spaced electrodes in monkeys trained to perform visual-spatial tasks. We will examine the patterns of neural responses during the presentation of multiple visual stimuli, concurrently or in sequence, and analyze the functional interactions between neurons. Experiments will specifically test whether prefrontal cortex is characterized by more robust, more widely distributed or dynamically modulated neuronal connectivity, or functionally specialized cell types. These experiments will help unveil the functional specialization of cortical areas involved in higher cognitive functions and offer insights on normal perceptual processing as well as the consequences of brain injury and mental illness. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE Understanding the organization and function of cortical areas mediating higher cognitive processes is key to ameliorating the disorders that can devastate one's ability to think and act. The proposed research will rely on a primate model to determine the role and functional specialization of two areas of the cerebral cortex involved in the processing of visual spatial information, the posterior parietal and dorsal prefrontal cortex.