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）：尽管广泛赞赏前额叶皮层（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存在根本的差距。知识差距是一个关键问题，因为许多精神病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对电机和感觉系统的控制的机制。当前建议的目的是测试一个新的模型，即PFC中的活动如何形成优先空间的地图，这些空间是在视野中标记显着和相关位置的优先空间，然后可以用作执行控制信号的基础。偏见的机制可能涉及用于扫视计划的机制。该项目的核心目的是测试人类PFC中神经活动模式与优先图理论的预测一致的程度，包括优先级图的功能组织，优先级优先级的性质以及优先级图的读数的影响。拟议的研究的理由是，更好地了解PFC如何施加控制将导致一个强大的理论框架，在该框架中，将发展出对精神疾病的理解。目的是测试，完善或可能反驳优先地图理论的原则，该理论将通过追求三个具体目标来实现：1）确定额叶皮质中的候选区域，这些候选区域显示了优先地图的标志性特征 - 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使用的基本和一般机制； 3）确定如何在早期视觉皮层中读取优先级地图雕刻活动。强大的初步数据证明了项目目标的可行性。在AIM 1下，使用新颖和优化的地形映射方法在PFC中确定了两个候选优先级地图。在AIM 2下，在各种空间认知任务（例如，记忆，注意力，计划，计划）中，候选优先级图中大脑活动的延迟活动和多元模式都非常相似，即使不是可互换的。在AIM 3下，在候选优先级图中，在空间特定的持续活动与视网膜匹配的早期视觉区域（即V1，V2，V3）中的活性伴随着，表明候选优先级中的活动通过早期视觉区域的活动偏见而进行视觉选择。这种方法具有创新性，因为它是高度编程的。使用新颖的方法来打击PFC功能性神经解剖学中的个体差异；它以创造性的方式使用强大的新分析方法来严格测试关键假设。拟议的研究很重要，因为它有望测试一个重要的执行控制新模型，并将对人类PFC进行控制的机制提供详细的理解，以便可以将这些机制的功能障碍模型作为靶向作为神经病理学的潜在治疗方法和潜在治疗方法。 公共卫生相关性：拟议的研究与公共卫生有关，因为我们对前额叶皮层在正常大脑中施加高管控制的机制的理解发展是为了阐明可能在病理大脑中出现问题的机制。具体而言，拟议的研究与NIH的使命相关，因为有望推进更强大的理论框架，在该框架中，临床研究人员可以在其中制定策略来诊断和治疗精神病和神经系统疾病。