Functional Imaging of the Human FEF

人类 FEF 的功能成像

• 批准号: 8187444
• 负责人: CLAYTON E CURTIS
• 金额: $ 36.78万
• 依托单位: NEW YORK UNIVERSITY
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2006
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2006-04-05 至 2013-02-28
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/8187444
• 关键词: Area; Attention; Brain; Clinical; Cognition; Data; Databases; Diagnosis; Dimensions; Discipline; Disease; Functional Imaging; Functional disorder; Goals; Hand; Human; Individual Differences; Influentials; Knowledge; Lead; Location; Maps; Measures; Memory; Mental disorders; Methods; Mission; Modeling; Motor; Nature; Neuroanatomy; Outcome; Parietal Lobe; Pattern; Perception; Prefrontal Cortex; Process; Psyche structure; Public Health; Reading; Research; Research Personnel; Saccades; Sensory; Signal Transduction; Specificity; System; Testing; Visual; Visual Cortex; Visual Fields; Visual system structure; Work; base; combat; executive function; extrastriate visual cortex; flexibility; frontal eye fields; frontal lobe; innovation; insight; nervous system disorder; neural patterning; neuropathology; novel; novel strategies; research study; sensorimotor system; stem; theories

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Despite the widespread appreciation that the prefrontal cortex (PFC) is necessary for flexible action and efficient perception, there is a fundamental gap in understanding the control mechanisms by which it accomplishes these goals. This gap in knowledge is a critical problem because a host of psychiatric and neurologic disorders stem from a primary dysfunction of executive control. The long-term goal is to understand the mechanisms by which the PFC exerts control over motor and sensory systems. The objective of the current proposal is to test a new model of how activity in the PFC forms maps of prioritized space that tag salient and relevant locations in the visual field, which can then be used as the basis of executive control signals. The mechanisms of bias are likely to involve mechanisms used for saccade planning. The central aim of the project is to test the extent to which the patterns of neural activity in the human PFC are consistent with predictions from the priority map theory, including the functional organization of priority maps, the nature of what is prioritized, and the effects of read-out of priority maps. The rationale for the proposed research is that a better understanding of how the PFC exerts control will lead to a strong theoretical framework within which strategies for the understanding of mental disease will develop. The objective will be to test, refine, and possibly refute, tenets of the priority map theory which will be accomplished by pursuing three specific aims: 1) Identify candidate areas in frontal cortex that show the hallmark feature of priority maps - a spatial topographic organization; 2) Test if activity in candidate priority maps is a fundamental and general mechanism used by a variety of spatial cognitions; and 3) Determine how the read out of priority maps sculpts activity in early visual cortex. Strong preliminary data demonstrate the feasibility of project aims in the applicant's hands. Under aim 1, two candidate priority maps were identified in PFC using novel and optimized topographical mapping approaches. Under aim 2, both delay period activity and multivariate patterns of brain activity in candidate priority maps were remarkably similar, if not interchangeable, across a variety of spatial cognition tasks (e.g., memory, attention, planning). Under aim 3, spatially specific persistent activity in candidate priority maps was concomitant with activity in retinotopically matched early visual areas (i.e., V1, V2, V3) suggesting that activity in candidate priority maps guides visual selection via its biasing of activity in early visual areas. The approach is innovative because it is highly programmatic; uses novel approaches to combat individual differences in the functional neuroanatomy of the PFC; and it uses powerful new analytic methods in creative ways to rigorously test key hypotheses. The proposed research is significant because it is expected to test an important new model of executive control and will provide a detailed understanding of the mechanisms by which the human PFC exerts control, such that models of dysfunction of these mechanisms can be targeted as the causes of and potential treatments for neuropathology. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: The proposed research is relevant to public health because advancement in our understanding of the mechanisms by which the prefrontal cortex exerts executive control in the normal brain is necessary to illuminate the mechanisms that could go awry in the pathological brain. Specifically, the proposed research is relevant to NIH's mission because is expected to advance a stronger theoretical framework within which clinical researchers can develop strategies for the diagnosis and treatment of psychiatric and neurologic disorders.

描述（由申请人提供）：尽管人们普遍认为前额皮质（PFC）对于灵活的行动和有效的感知是必要的，但在理解其实现这些目标的控制机制方面仍存在根本性的差距。这种知识差距是一个关键问题，因为许多精神和神经系统疾病源于执行控制的主要功能障碍。长期目标是了解 PFC 对运动和感觉系统进行控制的机制。当前提案的目标是测试一种新模型，了解前额皮质中的活动如何形成优先空间地图，标记视野中的显着和相关位置，然后将其用作执行控制信号的基础。偏差机制可能涉及用于扫视规划的机制。该项目的中心目标是测试人类 PFC 中的神经活动模式与优先级图理论的预测一致的程度，包括优先级图的功能组织、优先级的性质以及效果优先级地图的读出。拟议研究的基本原理是，更好地理解 PFC 如何发挥控制作用将形成一个强大的理论框架，在该框架内制定理解精神疾病的策略。目标将是测试、完善并可能反驳优先图理论的原则，这将通过追求三个具体目标来实现：1）识别额叶皮层中显示优先图标志特征的候选区域——空间地形组织; 2）测试候选优先级图中的活动是否是各种空间认知所使用的基本和通用机制； 3）确定优先级图的读出如何塑造早期视觉皮层的活动。强有力的初步数据证明了申请人手中项目目标的可行性。根据目标 1，使用新颖且优化的地形测绘方法在 PFC 中确定了两个候选优先级地图。在目标 2 下，候选优先级图中的延迟期活动和大脑活动的多元模式在各种空间认知任务（例如记忆、注意力、计划）中即使不可互换，也非常相似。在目标 3 下，候选优先图中的空间特定持续活动与视网膜局部匹配的早期视觉区域（即 V1、V2、V3）中的活动同时存在，这表明候选优先图中的活动通过早期视觉区域的活动偏差来指导视觉选择。该方法具有创新性，因为它具有高度的程序化性；使用新颖的方法来消除前额皮质功能神经解剖学的个体差异；它以创造性的方式使用强大的新分析方法来严格检验关键假设。拟议的研究意义重大，因为它有望测试一种重要的新执行控制模型，并将提供对人类 PFC 施加控制的机制的详细理解，从而可以将这些机制的功能障碍模型作为导致以及神经病理学的潜在治疗方法。 公共健康相关性：拟议的研究与公共健康相关，因为我们对前额皮质在正常大脑中发挥执行控制机制的理解的进步对于阐明在病理大脑中可能出错的机制是必要的。具体来说，拟议的研究与 NIH 的使命相关，因为预计将推进一个更强大的理论框架，临床研究人员可以在其中制定精神和神经疾病的诊断和治疗策略。