AUDIOVISUAL PROCESSING IN TEMPORAL-PREFRONTAL CIRCUITS

总结 面部手势和语音信号的整合是沟通中的一个重要过程， 依赖于大脑区域的相互连接的回路。面孔和声音整合的神经基础 是一个非常重要的主题，因为感觉整合对言语感知至关重要， 对象识别，并在自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）和其他智力障碍中受损。 残疾。神经影像学研究强调了腹侧额叶和皮层 周围的上级颞沟区（STS）的位置，面部和声音 信息被汇集在一起，解剖学研究已经描述了它们的鲁棒性。 连接.因此，颞叶区域发送单感觉和多感觉信号的网络 信息传递到腹侧前额叶皮层（VLPFC），以便在工作中进行整合和维护 记忆很可能是社交的基础。在本提案中，我们将确定 STS，神经元整合面部和声音刺激（目标1a）。我们还将确定 STS神经元是否在其对社会（面部和 声音刺激）与非社会（对象）刺激对。此外，我们将确定STS是否 神经元通过在视听过程中展示它们的活动来促进社会认知。 记忆范式（Aim 1b）。最后，我们将演示STS-VLPFC连接， 通过揭示STS神经元反应的变化，而VLPFC是 在视听工作记忆的表现过程中失活（目标2）。我们有 先前显示VLPFC的失活破坏视听记忆（Plakke等，（2015年） 我们将扩展这些研究，以量化STS神经元如何受到VLPFC的影响， 失活这些研究将调查STS的哪些区域受到VLPFC的影响 失活，并在视听刺激的评价是必要的。我们假设 VLPFC失活将不会影响STS神经元的反应，在采样期间， 视听记忆任务，但会影响STS活动在决策阶段的任务， 需要STS-VLPFC相互作用来比较手边的刺激（从底部的STS感知 上传入）与样本刺激保持在记忆中（VLPFC自上而下的影响）。的 识别连接的STS-VLPFC区域将有助于我们更好地了解视听 加工，整合和记忆，在健康和疾病。

SUMMARY The integration of facial gestures and vocal signals is an essential process in communication and relies on an interconnected circuit of brain regions. The neural basis of face and vocal integration is a topic of great importance since sensory integration is essential to speech perception and object recognition and is impaired in autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and other intellectual disabilities. Neuroimaging studies have highlighted the ventral frontal lobe and the cortex surrounding the superior temporal sulcus region (STS) as locations where face and vocal information are brought together, and anatomical studies have described their robust connections. Thus a network where temporal lobe regions send unisensory and multisensory information to the ventral prefrontal cortex (VLPFC) for integration and maintenance in working memory likely underlies social communication. In this proposal we will identify the regions of the STS where neurons integrate face and vocal stimuli (Aim 1a). We will also determine whether STS neurons demonstrate selectivity in their integrative responses to social (face and vocal stimuli) vs. non-social (object) pairs of stimuli. Moreover we will establish whether STS neurons contribute to social cognition by demonstrating their activity during an audiovisual memory paradigm (Aim 1b). Finally, we will demonstrate STS-VLPFC connectivity in audiovisual working memory by revealing changes in STS neuronal responses while VLPFC is inactivated during the performance of audiovisual working memory (Aim 2). We have previously shown that inactivation of VLPFC disrupts audiovisual memory (Plakke et al., 2015) and we will extend these studies to quantify how STS neurons are affected by VLPFC inactivation. These studies will investigate which regions of the STS are affected by VLPFC inactivation and are necessary in the evaluation of audiovisual stimuli. We hypothesize that VLPFC inactivation will not affect STS neuronal responses during the sample period of the audiovisual memory task but will affect STS activity during the decision phase of the task when STS-VLPFC interaction is needed to compare the stimulus at hand (STS perception from bottom up afferents) with the sample stimulus held in memory (VLPFC top down influence). The identification of connected STS-VLPFC regions will help us to better understand audiovisual processing, integration and memory, in both health and disease.