Post-natal development of high-level visual representation in primates

视点不变的物体识别是一项复杂的认知任务，对日常功能至关重要。一把钥匙 与高级物体识别相关的神经是下颞叶(IT)皮质，这是两边都存在的大脑区域 人类和非人类灵长类动物。视觉系统神经科学的最新进展已经开始揭示 图像在成人IT对象表示中是如何编码的，但是学习规则是通过哪个高级 视觉领域(尤其是IT)的发展仍然是个谜，其规模和性质都是 发展变化几乎完全未知--部分原因是，在过去的30年里， 几乎还没有关于丘脑腹侧皮质较高部位的刺激性神经反应的研究 发育中的灵长类。因此，我们对视觉发展的理解存在着很大的差距 收益。 这一探索性的建议旨在表征高级灵长类视觉皮质中的表征 在发展过程中的变化。我们的第一个目标(目标1)是植入慢性电极阵列以记录数百个 在清醒的少年猕猴中，它对数千个图像刺激的反应是神经元的定位。这些 数据将包括发展中的灵长类视觉表现的快照，并将特别 强大是因为我们已经使用相同的刺激和 方法：研究方法。通过比较青少年和成年神经元在单个部位和群体水平上的反应，我们 将获得史无前例的大规模和详细的高级视觉神经关联的图像 发展(目标2)。 目标1和目标2是探索性的，但具有潜在的变革性--它们将导致公开可用的神经元 IT开发基准，任何建议的高级可视化开发模型都可以作为基准 经过严格测试，并将在我们的实验室和其他实验室推动这些模型的开发。在这方面，我们 还将寻求(目标3)改进计算机视觉中已知的半监督和无监督学习规则，并 计算神经科学文献，并将它们与最近的高表现(但从生物学上)进行比较 令人难以置信的)监督模型以及在目标1和目标2中获得的丰富的发展测量。 为青少年阵列记录建立实验和手术程序将创造未来 有机会观察在操作经验时高级神经视觉表征的变化 早期开发，并将使其他感觉、运动或决策领域的实验成为可能。如果 如果成功，这项拟议的工作将对视觉皮质的基本原理有更深的理解 发展，理解，这反过来将有助于治疗神经发育障碍 牵涉到皮质回路，包括弱视和自闭症。

View-invariant object recognition is a complex cognitive task that is critical to everyday functioning. A key neural correlate of high-level object recognition is inferior temporal (IT) cortex, a brain area present in both humans and non-human primates. Recent advances in visual systems neuroscience have begun to uncover how images are encoded in the adult IT object representation, however the learning rules by which high level visual areas (especially IT) develop remain mysterious, with both the magnitude and qualitative nature of developmental changes remaining almost completely unknown — in part because, over the last thirty years, there have been practically no studies of spiking neural responses in the higher ventral cortical areas of developing primates. There is thus a significant gap in our understanding of how visual development proceeds. This exploratory proposal aims to characterize how representation in higher primate visual cortex changes during development. We first aim (Aim 1) to implant chronic electrode arrays to record hundreds of IT neuronal sites in response to thousands of image stimuli in awake behaving juvenile macaques. These data will comprise a snapshot of the developing primate visual representation, and will be particularly powerful because we have already extensively measured adult monkey IT using the same stimuli and methods. By comparing juvenile and adult neuronal responses at both single site and population levels, we will obtain a unprecedentedly large-scale and detailed picture of the neural correlates of high-level visual development (Aim 2). Aims 1 and 2 are exploratory, but potentially transformative – they will result in publicly available neuronal IT development benchmarks against which any proposed model of high level visual development can be rigorously tested, and will spur the development of those models in our lab and others. In that context, we will also seek (Aim 3) to improve known semi- and un-supervised learning rules from the computer vision and computational neuroscience literature, and to compare them to both recent high-performing (but biologically implausible) supervised models as well to the rich developmental measurements obtained in Aims 1 and 2. Establishing experimental and surgical procedures for juvenile array recordings will create the future opportunity to observe changes in high level neural visual representations while experience is manipulated in early development, and will enable experiments in other sensory, motor, or decision making domains. If successful, the proposed work will yield a deeper understanding of the principles underlying visual cortex development, understanding which will in turn be helpful for treating neurodevelopmental disorders that implicate cortical circuits, including amblyopia and autism.