Cortical processing of visual information during alert and non-alert brain states

这项拟议的工作旨在了解早期大脑皮质视觉机制的警觉和 在非警觉的受试者中。这要归功于行为控制方法的发展 眼睛的位置，在理解中枢机制方面取得了很大的进展。 警觉对警觉、专心的受试者的视觉感知然而，人们对此知之甚少 当警觉性减弱时发挥作用的皮质过程。唤醒、非警醒状态 不等于麻醉，也不等于睡眠状态。当处于非警戒状态时，我们能够 感知，但我们的感知能力不同。人们普遍认为，“事故” 当我们没有警觉，而是早期丘脑或视觉皮质 机制可能对此负责(与更高的认知过程相反) 一个悬而未决的问题。这项提议依赖于一个非常适合的独特的模式系统 来回答这个问题：清醒的、不会做出任何行为的兔子，一种具有内在精神状态的动物 生命“透明地在警觉和非警觉状态之间切换，以及谁的稳定的眼睛和 胆小的天性使它成为这些实验的理想对象。拟议的研究 将考察清醒受试者大脑状态的变化，以及戏剧性的 与它们相关的响应增益的变化，影响倍数， 发生在视觉丘脑皮质内的信息处理的连续阶段 和大脑皮层内网络。我们将检查视觉响应属性，检查 机制，并开发了一个生物现实模型，说明兴奋和抑制是如何 大脑皮层输入层(第四层)的神经元对状态变化做出反应，并将 研究状态修改的视觉信息是如何通过视觉的输出路径传递的 皮质区到后续处理站。这项工作将使我们更好地理解 在动态、清醒的大脑中视觉处理的皮质机制。从一个健康的 从长远来看，这些研究将对我们理解 警觉性/警觉性缺陷会影响视觉感知和表现，并将 为未来人类心理健康和行为的临床研究提供基础 精神错乱。目前的工作将对我们理解如何 警觉性/警觉性缺陷会影响视觉感知和表现。一场骚乱 丘脑皮质系统内的反应增强与精神疾病有关 这涉及到感觉处理和警觉水平的变化。这项提议将 揭示视觉丘脑皮质内调节反应增益的机制 系统，通过这样做，它将为未来的人类临床研究提供基础 精神健康和行为障碍。

The proposed work aims to understand early cortical mechanisms of vision in alert and in non-alert subjects. Thanks to the development of behavioral methods for the control of eye position, great advances have been made in understanding central mechanisms of visual perception of alert, attentive subjects. However, there is little understanding of cortical processes that come into play when alertness wanes. The awake, non-alert state is not equivalent to anesthesia, or to sleep states. When non-alert, we are capable of perception, but our perceptual capacities differ. It is commonly believed that "accidents happen" when we are not alert, but the extent to which early thalamic or visual cortical mechanisms may be responsible for this (as opposed to higher cognitive processes) is an open question. This proposal relies on a unique model system that is very well-suited to address this question: the awake, nonbehaving rabbit, an animal who's "inner mental life" transparently shifts between alert and non-alert states, and who's stable eyes and diffident nature make it an ideal subject for these experiments. The proposed research will examine how changes in the brain state of awake subjects, and the dramatic changes in response gain that are associated with them, influence the multiple, sequential stages of information processing that occur within the visual thalamocortical and intracortical network. We will examine visual response properties, examine mechanisms, and develop a biologically realistic model of how excitatory and inhibitory neurons of the input layer of the cortex (layer 4) respond to state-changes, and will examine how state-modified visual information is conveyed by output pathways of visual cortex to subsequent processing stations. This work will lead to a better understanding of cortical mechanisms of visual processing in a dynamic, awake brain. From a health perspective, these studies will have an important impact on our understanding of how alertness/vigilance deficits can impact visual perception and performance, and will provide the basis for future clinical studies of human mental health and behavioral disorders. The current work will have an important impact on our understanding of how alertness/vigilance deficits can impact visual perception and performance. A disruption in response gain within thalamocortical systems has been associated with mental diseases that involve changes in sensory processing and the level of vigilance. This proposal will reveal the mechanisms that modulate response gain within the visual thalamocortical system and, by doing so, it will provide the basis for future clinical studies of human mental health and behavioral disorders.