Neural Temporal Coding Mechanisms of Tactile Attention

触觉注意力的神经时间编码机制

• 批准号: 6826821
• 负责人: ERNST NIEBUR
• 金额: $ 34.03万
• 依托单位: JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2004
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2004-01-01 至 2007-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/6826821
• 关键词: Macaca mulatta; attention; cell population study; neural conduction; neural information processing; neural initiation; neural transmission; neurons; single cell analysis; space perception; touch; vibration perception; visual stimulus

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Humans and higher animals receive much more information from their sensory periphery than they can process in detail by their central nervous system. Selective attention is the triage process by which incoming information is divided into the behaviorally most relevant parts, which require detailed processing, and all others that are suppressed. The goal of this research is to understand the neural mechanisms underlying tactile selective attention which will be studied by single unit recordings and local field potential recordings in awake behaving monkeys. The first Aim is to determine the limits of granularity of attentional selection. What are the limits of selection in space (attend to different fingers or to different hands), submodality (attend to vibration or to form) and time (changes within the duration of one trial), and what are the neuronal correlations of this attentional selection? We will specifically measure changes in mean firing rate and in correlations between neurons (synchrony). Aim 2 is to determine the influence of attentional selection on the responses of identified neuronal subpopulations, including the functional populations defined by the cortical layers and by the postsynaptic effects of neurons (excitation or inhibition). We will also determine whether all neurons showing synchrony are part of one population or whether there are several subpopulations whose members are synchronous with each other but not with members of other subpopulations. Two theoretical models of the role of neural synchrony in perception (1: tagging of the attended stimulus, 2: tagging of different parts of a perceived stimulus) make different predictions for the number of subpopulations and this analysis will test those predictions. Aim 3 is to study the mechanisms underlying the generation of synchrony. One hypothesis that will be tested is phase locking of action potentials to a periodic function (oscillations).

描述（由申请人提供）：人类和高等动物从其感觉外围接收到的信息比其中枢神经系统可以详细处理的信息多得多。选择性注意是一种分类过程，通过该过程将传入的信息分为行为最相关的部分（需要详细处理）和所有其他被抑制的部分。这项研究的目的是了解触觉选择性注意背后的神经机制，将通过清醒行为猴子的单个单元记录和局部场电位记录来研究。第一个目标是确定注意力选择粒度的限制。空间（注意不同的手指或不同的手）、子模态（注意振动或形式）和时间（一次试验期间的变化）选择的限制是什么，这种注意选择的神经元相关性是什么？我们将专门测量平均放电率和神经元之间的相关性（同步性）的变化。目标 2 是确定注意力选择对已识别神经元亚群反应的影响，包括由皮质层和神经元突触后效应（兴奋或抑制）定义的功能群。我们还将确定显示同步的所有神经元是否属于一个群体的一部分，或者是否有多个亚群的成员彼此同步，但与其他亚群的成员不同步。神经同步在感知中的作用的两个理论模型（1：标记所关注的刺激，2：标记感知刺激的不同部分）对亚群的数量做出了不同的预测，本分析将测试这些预测。目标 3 是研究同步产生的机制。将要测试的一个假设是动作电位与周期函数（振荡）的锁相。