Investigating the brain circuitry underlying crossmodal object recognition

人类有意识的经验来自于对来自多个感官来源的刺激的感知。神经科学领域的一个重要问题涉及将多感官信息整合为有意义的表征的大脑机制。这项拟议中的研究将使用啮齿动物模型来研究多感觉信息处理的神经机制。具体来说，我们将研究跨模态物体识别的神经基础，即动物在以不同的感觉模态呈现之前探索过的物体时识别该物体的能力。我们已经证明，老鼠可以识别一个物体的视觉时，它以前只通过触摸探索。我们提出的研究将评估参与这种自适应认知形式的交互式大脑回路。第二种行为任务将使用配备电脑触摸屏的小室来测量大脑操作对直接多感觉整合的影响。例如，人类研究表明，反应时间显着促进行为相关的听觉和视觉刺激的同时呈现。我们将使用触摸屏室来开发这种多感觉整合任务的鼠标版本。这些小室将使我们能够更有效、更灵活地进行实验，并将促进与人类发现的跨物种比较。确定了这些任务后，我们将开始测试转基因小鼠，以评估选择性删除各种神经递质受体对多感觉整合的影响。像这样的动物研究是必不可少的，使我们能够观察神经操纵和行为变化之间的因果关系。因此，我们的研究计划应该有助于阐明多感觉整合的大脑机制，这是一种认知能力，其适应性优势影响了许多重要的心理功能，包括感知，记忆，语言，情感和意识。因此，这项研究计划将产生有助于我们理解哺乳动物大脑基本功能的知识，并可能为优化人类认知功能的努力提供信息。

Human conscious experience arises from the perception of stimuli originating from multiple sensory sources. An important question in the field of neuroscience relates to the brain mechanisms involved in the integration of multisensory information into meaningful representations. The proposed research will use rodent models to study the neural mechanisms of multisensory information processing. Specifically, we will study the neural bases of crossmodal object recognition, the ability of an animal to recognize a previously-explored object when it is presented in a different sensory modality. We have shown that rats can recognize an object visually when it has only previously been explored by touch. Our proposed research will assess the interactive brain circuitry involved in this adaptive form of cognition. A second type of behavioural task will use computerized touchscreen-equipped chambers to measure the effects of brain manipulations on direct multisensory integration. For example, human studies indicate that reaction times are significantly facilitated by the simultaneous presentation of behaviourally relevant auditory and visual stimuli. We will use touchscreen chambers to develop mouse versions of this kind of multisensory integration task. These chambers will enable us to run experiments more efficiently and flexibly and will facilitate cross-species comparisons with human findings. With these tasks established, we will begin to test genetically modified mice to assess the impact on multisensory integration of selective deletion of various neurotransmitter receptors. Animal studies like these are essential in enabling us to observe cause and effect relationships between neural manipulations and behavioural changes. As such, our research program should help to shed light on the brain mechanism underlying multisensory integration, a cognitive ability whose adaptive advantage impacts numerous vital psychological functions, including perception, memory, language, emotion, and consciousness. This research program will therefore generate knowledge that will contribute to our understanding of the basic functions of the mammalian brain and which may inform efforts to optimize human cognitive function.