Brain Mechanisms of Cognitivo-Motor Processes

描述(由申请人提供)： 该研究项目的长期目标是加深我们对与运动反应的选择、准备和执行相关的大脑机制的理解。我们对这些机制了解得越好，就越能更好地将这些知识转化为有用的现实世界应用程序，例如脑机接口。目前的大多数脑机应用研究都是基于这样的认识，即运动方向和速度等运动参数是决定运动相关区域神经元活动的重要因素。用于研究神经元活动和运动参数之间关系的经典范式一直是中心外任务，在该任务中，手从开始位置向几个等概率且明确的目标之一进行运动。尽管这种方法提供了大量重要的发现，但它没有考虑到在现实世界中，运动反应很少从一组相同概率的反应中选择，并且反应的选择并不总是显而易见的。相反，有效的运动计划和控制在很大程度上取决于对某些运动反应比其他反应更有可能的认识，以及快速处理相关信息的能力。例如，猎人也许能够在某种程度上从树林中的爆裂声中预测鹿即将到来的方向。然而，同样重要的是，在射击之前，目标必须被识别为鹿。出于这些原因，重要的是扩大对大脑如何在比迄今所用的更复杂的条件下计划和控制运动的研究。为此，我们计划调查在不同的目标方向可预测性条件和不同的目标模糊性条件下的到达运动的准备情况。TE研究策略是在相同的任务中研究人类和非人类灵长类受试者，为比较两个物种之间的行为和神经过程提供基础。将使用非人类灵长类动物运动皮质的单单位活动和局部场电位以及人类受试者的脑磁图来研究运动准备和反应选择的神经过程。理解这些信号如何反映在不确定和模糊的背景下的运动准备和反应选择，对于脑机接口的发展具有高度的相关性。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Project summary The long-term objective of this program of research is to further our understanding of the brain mechanisms associated with the selection, preparation and execution of motor responses. The better we understand these mechanisms the better we can translate this knowledge into useful real-world applications such as, for example, brain-machine interfaces. Most of the current brain-machine application studies are based on the knowledge that movement parameters such as movement direction and speed are important factors determining the activity of neurons in motor-related areas. The classical paradigm used to investigate the relation between neuronal activity and movement parameters has been the center-out task in which hand movements are made from a starting position toward one of several equiprobable and unambiguous targets. Although, this methodology has provided a great deal of important findings it does not take into account that in the real world motor responses are rarely selected among a set of equally probable responses and that the selection of the response is not always evident. On the contrary, efficient planning and control of movements depends greatly on the knowledge that some motor responses are more likely than others, and on the capacity to quickly process the information that is relevant. For example, a hunter may be able to predict to some extent the upcoming direction of a deer from cracklings in the woods, for example. However, it is also important that the target be recognized as a deer before shooting. For these reasons, it is important to extend the investigations of how the brain plans and controls movements in more complex conditions than those that have been used so far. To this end, we plan to investigate the preparation of reaching movements in different conditions of predictability of target direction and in different conditions of target ambiguity. Te research strategy is to study human and non-human primate subjects in the same tasks to provide a basis of comparison of behavior and neural processes between the two species. The neural processes of motor preparation and response selection will be investigated using single unit activity as well as local field potentials in the motor cortex of non-human primates, and magnetoencephallography in human subjects. Understanding how these signals reflect motor preparation and response selection in contexts of uncertainty and ambiguity is highly relevant to the development of brain-machine interfaces.