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）稳定了目光，因此在头部运动过程中稳定了凹陷图像。疾病或发育变化导致的VOR缺陷会严重损害视力。 VOR中的神经适应性对于克服这些缺陷至关重要。在过去的几十年中，对VOR的研究及其适应性一直集中在脑干和小脑途径的贡献上。然而，大脑皮层在VOR中的贡献仍然在很大程度上尚未探索。最近的研究表明，额眼场（FEF）在FEF的子区域中直接投影了对与光滑眼球运动（FEFSEM）相关的FEF子区域的直接投影，这表现出与眼动和头部运动相关的活性，这表明VOR中FEFSEM的重要作用。拟议的研究的目的是采用单个单元记录和化学病变方法来研究FEFSEM在VOR的生成和适应中的贡献。第一个目的是使用单个单元记录技术定量分析FEFSEM神经元如何编码猴子中的头部运动。最近，我们开发了一种范式，该范式在VOR中引起了稳健的短期和长期可塑性，以补偿转化头运动（TVOR）。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的，而是由任务的空间上下文引导，即目标是在空间中静止还是相对于头部固定。第二个目的是利用这一范式来研究FEFSEM神经元在TVOR产生中的作用。该实验将在与任务上下文以及TVOR的自愿控制和适应相关的信息处理中对FEFSEM有更深入的了解。第三个目的是通过不可逆地灭活FEFSEM并研究其对TVOR的产生和适应的影响来评估FEFSEM的功能意义。这项研究将提供重要的知识，以了解基本的前庭和眼动物神经生理学，并改善人类前庭疾病的诊断和治疗。