Motor Learning & Neural Plasticity in Vestibular System

运动学习

• 批准号: 6930995
• 负责人: WU ZHOU
• 金额: $ 29.6万
• 依托单位: UNIVERSITY OF MISSISSIPPI MED CTR
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2002
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2002-09-20 至 2007-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/6930995
• 关键词: Macaca mulatta; auditory stimulus; biological signal transduction; cerebral cortex; electrodes; eye movements; head movements; muscimol; neural information processing; neural plasticity; neurophysiology; neuropsychology; smooth pursuit eye movement; space perception; vestibuloocular reflex; visual fields

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant) The vestibulo-ocular reflex (VOR) stabilizes gaze and hence foveal images during head movements. Deficits in the VOR resulting from disease or changes in development can severely impair vision. Neural adaptation in the VOR is essential to overcome these deficits. Over the past several decades, the investigation of the VOR and its adaptation has been focused on the contributions of brainstem and cerebellar pathways. The contributions of cerebral cortex in the VOR, however, remain largely unexplored. Recent studies have demonstrated that the frontal eye field (FEF) has direct projections to brainstem VOR pathways and neurons in the subregion of the FEF linked to smooth eye movements (FEFsem) exhibit activity related to both eye movements and head movements, suggesting an important role for the FEFsem in the VOR. The objective of the proposed research is to employ single unit recording and chemical lesion approaches to study the contributions of the FEFsem in the generation and adaptation of the VOR. The first aim is to use single unit recording techniques to quantitatively analyze how the FEFsem neurons encode head motion in monkeys. Recently, we have developed a paradigm that induces robust short-term and long-term plasticity in the VOR that compensates for translational head movements (TVOR). A novel feature of the paradigm is that these behavioral changes are not guided by visual information but by the spatial context of the task, i.e. whether the target is stationary in space or fixed relative to the head. The second aim is to take advantage of this paradigm to study the role of the FEFsem neurons in the generation of the TVOR. This experiment will provide greater understanding of the FEFsem in the information processing related to the task context and in the voluntary control and adaptation of the TVOR. The third aim is to assess the functional significance of the FEFsem by reversibly inactivating the FEFsem and studying its effect on the generation and adaptation of the TVOR. This research will provide important knowledge for understanding the fundamental vestibular and oculomotor neurophysiology and improving the diagnosis and treatment of vestibular disorders in humans.

描述（由申请人提供） 前庭眼反射（VOR）稳定凝视，从而稳定头部运动期间的中心凹图像。疾病或发育变化导致的 VOR 缺陷会严重损害视力。 VOR 中的神经适应对于克服这些缺陷至关重要。在过去的几十年里，VOR 及其适应的研究一直集中在脑干和小脑通路的贡献上。然而，大脑皮层在 VOR 中的贡献在很大程度上仍未被探索。最近的研究表明，额叶眼场 (FEF) 直接投射到脑干 VOR 通路，并且 FEF 子区域中与平滑眼球运动 (FEFsem) 相关的神经元表现出与眼球运动和头部运动相关的活动，这表明其在脑干中发挥着重要作用。用于 VOR 中的 FEFsem。拟议研究的目标是采用单单元记录和化学损伤方法来研究 FEFsem 在 VOR 的生成和适应中的贡献。第一个目标是使用单单元记录技术来定量分析 FEFsem 神经元如何编码猴子的头部运动。最近，我们开发了一种范式，可以在 VOR 中产生强大的短期和长期可塑性，从而补偿平移头部运动 (TVOR)。该范式的一个新颖特征是，这些行为变化不是由视觉信息引导，而是由任务的空间背景引导，即目标是在空间中静止还是相对于头部固定。第二个目标是利用这个范例来研究 FEFsem 神经元在 TVOR 生成中的作用。该实验将加深对 FEFsem 在与任务上下文相关的信息处理以及 TVOR 的自愿控制和适应方面的理解。第三个目标是通过可逆地灭活 FEFsem 并研究其对 TVOR 的生成和适应的影响来评估 FEFsem 的功能意义。这项研究将为理解基本的前庭和动眼神经生理学以及改善人类前庭疾病的诊断和治疗提供重要的知识。