SACCADE TARGET SELECTION-FRONTAL CORTEX

描述（由申请人提供）：我们研究的长期目标是了解视觉系统如何决定看哪里。在执行视觉搜索任务的猴子中，多个神经元的活动将被同时监测，这些任务旨在将视觉处理与扫视准备分离开来。我们将研究额眼野，因为它位于解剖学上，可以对视觉处理的结果进行取样，以定向注意力，并产生运动命令来定向凝视。将分析神经活动模式，以评估关于视觉信息如何在神经元池中编码以进行目标选择的特定假设（目标1），描述视觉和扫视神经元之间如何发生感觉-运动映射（目标2），并确定短期和长期经验如何影响扫视目标选择（目标3）。了解大脑如何选择视觉刺激的行为是理解视觉行为受损的原因所必需的。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The long-term goal of our research is to understand how the visual system decides where to look. The activity of multiple neurons will be monitored simultaneously in monkeys performing visual search tasks designed to dissociate visual processing from saccade preparation. The frontal eye field will be studied because it is situated anatomically to sample the outcome of visual processing to orient attention and produce motor commands to orient gaze. Patterns of neural activity will be analyzed to evaluate specific hypotheses about how visual information is encoded for target selection among pools of neurons (Aim 1), to describe how sensory-motor mapping occurs between visual and saccade neurons (Aim 2) and to determine how short-term and long-term experience influences saccade target selection (Aim 3). Understanding how the brain selects visual stimuli for action is necessary to understand the causes of impaired visual behavior.