NEURAL BASIS OF SHAPE REPRESENTATION AND RECOGNITION

形状表示和识别的神经基础

• 批准号: 8172747
• 负责人: Anitha Pasupathy
• 金额: $ 15.51万
• 依托单位: UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2010
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2010-05-01 至 2011-04-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/8172747
• 关键词: Animal Behavior; Animals; Brain; Cells; Color; Color Perception; Computer Retrieval of Information on Scientific Projects Database; Funding; Goals; Grant; Image; Institution; Laboratories; Monkeys; Neurons; Pattern; Primates; Research; Research Personnel; Resources; Retinal; Shapes; Source; Stimulus; Training; United States National Institutes of Health; V4 neuron; Visual Cortex; Visual system structure; area V4; base; insight; object recognition; relating to nervous system; research study; response; visual stimulus

This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. The goal of research in my laboratory is to understand how visual stimuli are encoded in the neural activity patterns in the visual cortex and how this representation underlies object recognition. In one set of experiments we are investigating how partially occluded objects are encoded. In everyday situations objects are often partially occluded but our visual system recognizes objects robustly and efficiently despite retinal image distortions due to partial occlusion. To discover how this is achieved in the primate brain, we have conducted experiments in two fixating monkeys to study activity in area V4 and compare representations when an object is isolated versus when adjoined by a contextual stimulus that suggests partial occlusion. Our results indicate that responses of V4 neurons more closely resemble the perceived stimulus, i.e. V4 neurons do not encode contours that are likely to arise in the retinal image as a result of partial occlusion. In a second experiment, we have trained an animal to perform a shape matching task in the presence of occluders. We will start recording from this animal in a few weeks to study activity of V4 neurons as the animal performs the task. Correlation between neural activity and animal behavior on a single trial basis will provide important insights into how V4 activity is utilized for recognizing objects. Finally, we have found a new class of cells in V4 that respond preferentially to colored stimuli at isoluminance. When the contrast between the stimulus and background increases the neuron is suppressed. We are currently investigating how this neuron contributes to color perception.

该副本是利用众多研究子项目之一 由NIH/NCRR资助的中心赠款提供的资源。子弹和 调查员（PI）可能已经从其他NIH来源获得了主要资金， 因此可以在其他清晰的条目中代表。列出的机构是 对于中心，这不一定是调查员的机构。 在我的实验室中进行研究的目的是了解视觉刺激如何在视觉皮层中的神经活动模式中编码以及该表示形式如何构成对象识别的基础。在一组实验中，我们正在研究如何对部分遮挡对象进行编码。在日常情况下，通常会部分遮挡对象，但是尽管由于部分遮挡而导致的视网膜图像畸变，我们的视觉系统会稳健有效地识别对象。为了发现灵长类动物的大脑如何实现这一目标，我们在两个固定猴子中进行了实验，以研究区域V4的活动，并比较当对象被隔离到隔离与被暗示部分闭塞的上下文刺激相邻时进行比较。我们的结果表明，V4神经元的反应更类似于感知的刺激，即V4神经元不会编码由于部分闭塞而在视网膜图像中可能出现的轮廓。在第二次实验中，我们训练了动物在阻塞物存在下执行形状匹配的任务。我们将在几周内开始从该动物记录，以研究动物执行任务时V4神经元的活动。神经活动与动物行为之间的相关性在一个试验基础上将提供有关如何利用V4活动识别对象的重要见解。最后，我们在V4中发现了一类新的细胞，该细胞在分离性时优先响应有色刺激。当刺激和背景之间的对比增加时，抑制了神经元。我们目前正在研究该神经元如何促进颜色感知。