Electrophysiology of Human Spatial Cognition

描述(由申请人提供)：拟议的多站点研究项目旨在促进我们对人类空间记忆潜在的神经机制的理解。作为耐药癫痫临床治疗的一部分，接受手术/侵入性监测的癫痫患者将在四个主要医疗中心招募。这一过程是以最高标准的护理进行的，对患者具有潜在的治愈作用。通过在接受侵入性电极监测的同时执行类似游戏的空间记忆任务，患者可能会提供关于空间认知背后的大脑机制的精致数据。这项拟议的研究将考察在虚拟出租车司机游戏黄色出租车的几个变种中，脑电波(振荡)、细胞反应和受试者行为之间的关系。我们的前两个目标集中在空间信息的编码上。目标1试图回答这个问题：大脑不同区域的神经元活动如何代表(虚拟)空间导航和空间记忆所需的信息？目标2试图通过问这个问题来补充这一知识：这些与空间相关的神经系统如何对信息进行编码？第三、第四和第五个目标将空间记忆系统视为一个动态实体，考察这个系统的反应是如何随着时间的推移而变化的，这是由于学习和环境的改变。目标3解决了如何通过经验获得和转换空间表示的问题。目标4考察了人类空间表征在环境层面和环境内路线层面的背景依赖性。最后，目标5考察了空间记忆和言语情景记忆之间的交互作用。支持这一目标的研究将使我们能够将我们对空间记忆的研究与更多关于MTL系统在人类和动物的陈述性记忆过程中的作用的文献联系起来(Cohen&Eichenbaum，1993)。拟议的研究与癫痫的治疗直接相关，其中在手术过程中将认知功能映射到大脑区域对于确保手术后的良好结果至关重要。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The proposed multisite research project seeks to advance our understanding of the neural mechanisms underlying human spatial memory. Epileptic patients undergoing surgical/invasive monitoring as part of the clinical treatment of drug-resistant epilepsy will be recruited at four major medical centers. This procedure is performed with the highest standard of care and is potentially curative for the patients. By performing game-like spatial memory tasks while undergoing invasive electrode monitoring, patients may provide exquisite data on the brain mechanisms underlying spatial cognition. The proposed studies will examine the relation between brain waves (oscillations), cellular responses, and subjects' behavior during several variants of Yellow Cab, a virtual taxi-driver game. Our first two aims focus on the coding of spatial information. Aim 1 seeks to answer the question: How is the information necessary for (virtual) spatial navigation and spatial memory represented by neuronal activity in various brain regions? Aim 2 attempts to complement this knowledge by asking the question: How do these spatially-relevant neural systems code information? The third, fourth, and fifth aims regard the spatial memory system as a dynamic entity, and investigate the ways in which the responses of this system change over time, due to learning and to modifications of the environment. Aim 3 addresses the question of how spatial representations are acquired and transformed through experience. Aim 4 examines the contextual dependence of human spatial representations, both at the level of environments and at the level of routes within an environment. Finally, Aim 5 investigates the interaction between spatial memory and verbal episodic memory. The research supporting this aim will enable us to link our research on spatial memory to the larger literature on the role of the MTL system in declarative memory processes in humans and animals (Cohen & Eichenbaum, 1993). The proposed studies are of direct relevance to the treatment of epilepsy, in which mapping of cognitive functions to brain regions during surgical procedures is crucial for ensuring good postsurgical outcome.