Project B: Neural basis of causal inference and sensory updating in trial-based tasks in monkeys

项目 B：猴子试验任务中因果推理和感觉更新的神经基础

• 批准号: 10615047
• 负责人: GREGORY C DEANGELIS
• 金额: $ 53.71万
• 依托单位: UNIVERSITY OF ROCHESTER
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2020-08-01 至 2025-04-30
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10615047
• 关键词: Affect; Animals; Area; Attention; Back; Behavior; Behavioral; Belief; Brain; Data; Event; Feedback; Goals; Impairment; Judgment; Light; Link; Macaca; Mediating; Modeling; Monkeys; Motion; Muscimol; Neural Pathways; Parietal; Pathway interactions; Pattern; Physics; Population; Process; Reporting; Retina; Role; Sensory; Signal Transduction; Structure; Testing; Time; Training; Update; Visual Cortex; Work; area MT; design; experimental study; extrastriate visual cortex; neural; neural circuit; neural correlate; object motion; optic flow; optogenetics; predictive modeling; retinotopic; sensory cortex; visual processing

Project Summary The world's complexity makes sensory information ambiguous. A set of signals sweeping across the retina, for instance, might be generated by a moving object or by the animal's own motion. The brain resolves this ambiguity by constructing an internal model of reality that associates patterns in sensory data with events in the world, in a process called causal inference. To support adaptive action, the brain's estimates of all relevant variables must be updated to remain consistent with physics under the current interpretation of the scene, as well as with each other. This proposal focuses on perceptual interactions among object motion, self-motion, and depth. This project will test the predictions of models from Project A for how causal inference should update these related sensory variables. Based on previous work and preliminary data, the overall hypothesis is that parietal (7a) and prefrontal (8av) areas signal whether or not an object moves in the world, and that these signals flow through feedback projections to update sensory representations of object depth in area MT and self-motion velocity in area MSTd. The goal of this project is to use traditional, trial-based tasks to determine whether, and if so how, causal inferences are propagated back to sensory cortex to update representations of task-relevant variables in monkeys. The goal of Aim 1 is to test whether causal inference modulates low-level sensory representations of motion by examining neural correlates of optic flow parsing, a phenomenon in which the perceived direction of an object's motion is strongly and predictably influenced by background optic flow. Aim 2 will test directly if sensory representations of task variables are updated to maintain consistency with beliefs about the world. Monkeys will judge whether an object moves in the world and also report its depth, while neural populations in parietal area 7a, prefrontal area 8av, and sensory areas MT and MSTd are recorded. The theoretical framework, supported by preliminary behavioral data, predicts that this causal inference about object motion will induce specific patterns of bias in estimates of depth and self-motion velocity, and that neural estimates of motion and depth in MT and MSTd will update to remain consistent with behavior. To identify the neural circuitry necessary for causal inference and sensory updating, Aim 3 will inactivate feedback pathways with muscimol or optogenetics while neural activity is recorded in sensory representations, as animals perform the same task as in Aim 2. Aim 1 is expected to establish that causal inference modulates early visual processing, and to identify the areas where these effects are implemented. Aim 2 will provide the first cellular and neural population evidence of causal inference and sensory updating by belief propagation. Aim 3 will establish a neural circuit that is necessary for mediating causal inference and for updating sensory representations. Together, successful completion of the proposed experiments will uncover circuit mechanisms of causal inference and sensory variable updating and establish a new functional role for top-down feedback connections, which are a general feature of cortical organization.

项目摘要 世界的复杂性使感官信息模棱两可。一组横跨视网膜的信号，因为 实例，可以通过移动物体或动物自己的运动产生。大脑解决这个问题 通过构建现实的内部模型，将感觉数据中的模式与事件相关联 在一个称为因果推论的过程中，世界。为了支持自适应行动，大脑对所有相关的估计 必须更新变量，以与当前场景解释的物理保持一致，如 以及彼此。该建议重点是对象运动，自我运动之间的感知相互作用， 和深度。该项目将测试项目A的模型的预测，以了解因果推断如何 更新这些相关的感觉变量。根据以前的工作和初步数据，总体假设是 那个顶壁（7a）和前额叶（8av）区域表示，一个物体是否在世界上移动，并且 信号流过反馈预测，以更新面积MT中对象深度的感官表示形式和 MSTD区域的自动速度。该项目的目的是使用传统的，基于试用的任务来确定 是否以及如何，如何将因果推断传播回感官皮层以更新 猴子中与任务相关的变量。目标1的目的是测试因果推理是否调制低级 通过检查视流解析的神经相关性的运动表示，这是一种现象 对象运动的感知方向受到背景光学的强烈和可预测的影响 流动。 AIM 2将直接测试任务变量的感官表示以保持一致性 关于世界的信念。猴子会判断一个物体是否在世界上移动并报告其深度， 虽然顶部区域7A，前额叶区域8AV和感觉区MT和MSTD的神经种群是 记录。由初步行为数据支持的理论框架预测该因果关系 关于对象运动的推断将在深度和自我运动的估计中引起特定的偏见模式 速度，以及MT和MSTD中运动和深度的神经估计将更新以保持与 行为。为了确定因果推理和感觉更新所需的神经回路，AIM 3将 在感官中记录神经活动时，用肌酚或光遗传学灭活反馈途径 表示动物执行与AIM 2中相同的任务。AIM 1有望确定该因果关系 推理调节早期视觉处理，并确定实施这些效果的区域。 AIM 2将提供第一个细胞和神经群体的因果推理和感觉更新的证据 信仰传播。 AIM 3将建立一个神经回路，这是介导因果推断所必需的 更新感官表示。共同完成提议的实验的成功完成 因果推理和感觉变量更新的电路机制，并为 自上而下的反馈连接，这是皮质组织的一般特征。