Functions of the Thalamus in Perception and Cognition

丘脑在感知和认知中的功能

• 批准号: 7770802
• 负责人: SABINE KASTNER
• 金额: $ 38.57万
• 依托单位: PRINCETON UNIVERSITY
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2007
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2007-04-01 至 2012-02-29
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/7770802
• 关键词: Address; Adolescent; Adult; Animal Model; Area; Attention; Attentional deficit; Awareness; Basic Science; Behavioral; Binocular rivalry; Brain; Brain Mapping; Cell Nucleus; Cell physiology; Cerebral cortex; Child; Clinical Research; Cognition; Conscious; Decision Making; Detection; Diagnosis; Dyslexia; Exhibits; Eye; Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Gatekeeping; Goals; Human; Imaging Techniques; Individual; Laboratories; Lateral Geniculate Body; Macaca; Memory; Methods; Modeling; Noise; Perception; Physiological; Play; Process; Reading Disabilities; Research; Research Personnel; Resolution; Retina; Role; Sensory; Short-Term Memory; Signal Transduction; Specificity; Staging; Stimulus; Structure; System; Techniques; Testing; Thalamic Nuclei; Thalamic structure; Visit; Visual; Visual Cortex; Visual attention; area striata; base; cognitive function; human subject; innovation; magnocellular; neuroimaging; neuromechanism; parvocellular; programs; relating to nervous system; selective attention; superior colliculus Corpora quadrigemina; visual information; visual map; visual process; visual processing

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Much progress has been made in understanding the neural bases of cognitive functions related to selective attention, memory, or decision making in humans using functional brain mapping techniques and in the macaque as the prototypical animal model for human brain function using single-cell physiology and other invasive techniques. These studies have almost exclusively focused on sensory and higher-order processing areas of the cerebral cortex. In contrast, relatively little is known about the role of thalamic nuclei such as the lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN) in perception and cognition. Traditionally, the LGN has been viewed as the gateway to primary visual cortex, which conveys the visual information faithfully from the retina to cortex without much modulation. The goal of the proposed research is to challenge this traditional view by investigating the functional role of the LGN in perceptual functions related to visual awareness and in cognitive functions related to selective attention. The central hypothesis that motivates this research is that the LGN plays an important role beyond that of a relay nucleus as a gatekeeper in visual attention and awareness. FMRI and behavioral studies in non-impaired and dyslexic subjects are proposed to address the following questions: 1) Can neural correlates of conscious perception be identified as early as in the parvocellular, or magnocellular parts of the LGN?; 2) What is the neural mechanism by which selective attention controls gain in the human LGN, and is this gain control confined to the magnocellular LGN?; 3) Are visual processing abnormalities and attentional deficits in dyslexic subjects associated with a functional disorganization of the magnocellular LGN? In the human brain, it has proven difficult to study subcortical nuclei because of spatial resolution and signal-to-noise limitations of brain mapping techniques. The proposed research will use innovative high- and super-resolution imaging techniques in humans to overcome some of these issues. The cerebral cortex depends critically on the information that it receives from the thalamus, since it receives very little else. Understanding cortical functioning depends on understanding the thalamic inputs that are the necessary first step in cortical processing.

描述（由申请人提供）：在理解与人类功能性脑映射技术和猕猴中的认知功能，记忆或决策相关的认知功能的神经基础方面取得了很多进展，使用单细胞生理学和其他侵入性技术，作为人脑功能的原型动物模型。这些研究几乎仅专注于大脑皮层的感觉和高阶加工区域。相比之下，关于丘脑核的作用，例如侧向基因核（LGN）在感知和认知中的作用相对较少。传统上，LGN被视为通往主要视觉皮层的门户，它忠实地传达了视觉信息从视网膜到皮层，而没有太多调节。拟议的研究的目的是通过研究LGN在与视觉意识和与选择性关注有关的认知功能中的感知功能中的功能作用来挑战这种传统观点。激励这项研究的中心假设是，LGN在接力核作为视觉注意力和意识中的守门人之外起着重要作用。提出了非受损和阅读障碍受试者的FMRI和行为研究来解决以下问题：1）有意识感知的神经相关性早在LGN的副细胞或大细胞部分中就可以识别出来吗？ 2）选择性注意控制在人LGN中获得的神经机制是什么，而这种收益控制局限于大细胞LGN？ 3）视觉处理异常和与大细胞LGN功能性混乱相关的阅读障碍受试者的注意力缺陷是否存在？在人脑中，由于空间分辨率和大脑映射技术的信噪限制，因此很难研究皮层核。拟议的研究将在人类中使用创新的高分辨率成像技术来克服其中一些问题。大脑皮层严格取决于它从丘脑收到的信息，因为它几乎没有其他收到的信息。理解皮质功能取决于理解丘脑的输入，这是皮质加工中必要的第一步。