Cortical Processing of visual information during alert and non-alert brain state

这项建议旨在了解在以下情况下发生的视觉处理变化 受试者在警觉和非警觉唤醒状态之间切换。由于……的发展 控制眼位的行为方法在以下方面取得了很大的进展 了解警觉、专心的受试者视觉感知的中枢机制。 然而，对于何时起作用的皮质过程却知之甚少。 警觉性减弱。清醒、非清醒状态不等同于麻醉或睡眠 各州。当没有警觉时，我们能够感知，但我们的感知能力 不同。人们普遍认为，当我们不警觉时，就会发生事故，但 早期丘脑或视觉皮质机制可能在多大程度上对此负责 (相对于更高的认知过程)是一个悬而未决的问题。这项提议依赖于 一个非常适合解决这个问题的独特的模型系统：觉醒 兔子，一种透明地在警觉和非警觉之间切换的动物 警觉的状态，以及谁的稳定的眼睛和胆小的天性使它成为这些人的理想主题 实验。 这项拟议的研究将检验清醒受试者的大脑状态如何变化。 影响信息处理中发生的多个顺序阶段 视觉丘脑皮质和皮质内网络。这些实验将测量状态- 兴奋性和抑制性神经元视觉反应特性的相关性变化 在大脑皮层的输入和输出层，并将研究潜在的 导致这些变化的机制，在亚阈值和尖峰水平。这部作品 将有助于更好地理解大脑皮质的视觉处理机制 充满活力、清醒的大脑。 从健康的角度来看，这些研究将对我们的 了解警觉性/警觉性缺陷如何影响视觉感知和 性能，将为未来人类心理健康的临床研究提供基础 和行为障碍。

This proposal aims to understand the changes in visual processing that occur when subjects shift between alert and non-alert waking states. Thanks to the development of behavioral methods for the control of eye position, great advances have been made in understanding central mechanisms of visual perception of alert, attentive subjects. However, there is little understanding of cortical processes that come into play when alertness wanes. The awake, non-alert state is not equivalent to anesthesia, or to sleep states. When non-alert, we are capable of perception, but our perceptual capacities differ. It is commonly believed that "accidents happen" when we are not alert, but the extent to which early thalamic or visual cortical mechanisms may be responsible for this (as opposed to higher cognitive processes) is an open question. This proposal relies on a unique model system that is very well-suited to address this question: the awake rabbit, an animal who's "inner mental life" transparently shifts between alert and non- alert states, and who's stable eyes and diffident nature make it an ideal subject for these experiments. The proposed research will examine how changes in the brain state of awake subjects influence the multiple, sequential stages of information processing that occur within the visual thalamocortical and intracortical network. The experiments will measure state- dependent changes in the visual response properties of excitatory and inhibitory neurons at the input and output layers of the cortex and will investigate the underlying mechanisms leading to these changes, at the subthreshold and spiking level. This work will lead to a better understanding of cortical mechanisms of visual processing in a dynamic, awake brain. From a health perspective, these studies will have an important impact on our understanding of how alertness/vigilance deficits can impact visual perception and performance, and will provide the basis for future clinical studies of human mental health and behavioral disorders.