The neural mechanisms of precision in visual working memory

 描述（由申请人提供）：视觉工作记忆（VWM）对于我们保持不再直接看到的刺激信息的能力至关重要。在日常生活中，我们伊利这种技能来保持我们环境中物体的相关信息，并促进行动计划。重要的是，支持视觉工作记忆的复杂神经机制尚未得到很好的表征，这一领域的仔细研究对于理解健康的人类大脑如何积极地在记忆中保持精确的视觉信息至关重要。有趣的是，视觉信息可以被编码的精度，保持，并从VWM检索在健康个体之间有很大的差异，甚至从一个单一的个人试验到试验。先前的研究表明，外侧前额叶皮层（PFC）和高级视觉区，如梭状面孔区（FFA）参与了VWM中面孔刺激的编码和维持。然而，目前还不清楚这些领域如何相互作用，以支持精确维护VWM表示。因此，拟议的研究的目标是确定复杂的视觉对象是如何保持高精度的VWM，并确定潜在的神经机制负责VWM故障和不精确。使用不同的行为，功能性磁共振成像（fMRI），并同时经颅磁刺激- fMRI方法，拟议的一组实验将调查的性质VWM代表的面孔，以及这些代表保持高精度随着时间的推移的机制。更具体地说，将测试以下假设：（1）刺激选择性视觉区（如FFA）通过在视觉刺激不再存在时维持感知相关活动来支持精确的VWM，以及（2）外侧PFC向刺激选择性区域提供自上而下的输入或与刺激选择性区域进行交互，以帮助维持VWM表征的精确性。这项研究与公共卫生有关，因为它将促进我们对颞叶视觉区和额叶在VWM中各自作用的理解。许多精神和神经系统疾病，如精神分裂症，痴呆症，中风和创伤性脑损伤影响额叶和/或颞叶功能;和许多其他条件，如注意力缺陷障碍，物质成瘾，和正常衰老被认为涉及额叶脑系统的选择性功能障碍。拟议的研究将导致有关健康大脑功能的基本知识，可以为理解，诊断和治疗各种临床疾病提供有价值的见解。

 DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Visual working memory (VWM) is essential for our ability to maintain information about stimuli that are no longer in direct view. In daily life, we ely on this skill to maintain relevant information about objects in our environment and to facilitate action planning. Importantly, the complex neural mechanisms that support visual working memory are not yet well characterized, and careful research in this area is critical for understanding how the healthy human brain actively maintains precise visual information in memory. Interestingly, the precision with which visual information can be encoded, maintained, and retrieved from VWM varies considerably between healthy individuals, and even from trial to trial within a single individual. Previous research has shown that the lateral prefrontal cortex (PFC) and higher-order visual areas like the fusiform face area (FFA) are involved in the encoding and maintenance of face stimuli in VWM. However, it remains unclear how these areas interact to support the precise maintenance of VWM representations. Therefore, the goal of the proposed research is to determine how complex visual objects are maintained with high precision in VWM, and to identify potential neural mechanisms responsible for VWM failures and imprecision. Using diverse behavioral, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), and concurrent transcranial magnetic stimulation - fMRI approaches, the proposed set of experiments will investigate the nature of VWM representations for faces, and the mechanisms by which those representations are maintained with high precision over time. More specifically, the following hypotheses will be tested: (1) a stimulus-selective visual area such as the FFA supports precise VWM by maintaining perception-related activity when a visual stimulus is no longer present, and (2), that the lateral PFC provides top-down inputs to, or engages in interactions with, stimulus-selective areas that aid in sustaining the precision of VWM representations. This research is relevant to public health because it will advance our understanding of the respective roles of temporal visual areas and the frontal lobes in VWM. Many psychiatric and neurological disorders such as schizophrenia, dementia, stroke and traumatic brain injury affect frontal and/or temporal lobe function; and many other conditions such as attention-deficit disorder, substance addiction, and normal aging are proposed to involve selective dysfunction of frontal brain systems. The proposed research will lead to basic knowledge about healthy brain function that can provide valuable insights into the understanding, diagnosis and treatment of a wide range of clinical conditions.