Anatomical, neural, and computational constraints on sensory cross-modal plasticity following early blindness

早期失明后感觉跨模态可塑性的解剖学、神经学和计算限制

• 批准号: 10570400
• 负责人: Woon Ju Park
• 金额: $ 12.68万
• 依托单位: UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-04-01 至 2025-03-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10570400
• 关键词: Adult; Anatomy; Area; Arithmetic; Auditory; Award; Behavioral; Blindness; Brain; Brain region; Compensation; Development; Diffusion Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Environment; Equilibrium; Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Goals; Human; Individual; Learning; Link; Literature; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy; Mathematics; Measurement; Measures; Mediating; Mentors; Modality; Modeling; Motion; Neuroanatomy; Neuronal Plasticity; Neurons; Neurophysiology - biologic function; Neurotransmitters; Noise; Outcome; Perception; Performance; Positioning Attribute; Process; Property; Psychophysics; Reading; Recycling; Rehabilitation therapy; Research; Research Personnel; Rest; Role; Sensory; Signal Transduction; Techniques; Testing; Tissues; Training; Universities; Vision; Visual Motion; Visually Impaired Persons; Washington; Work; auditory stimulus; blind; density; design; diffusion weighted; experience; flexibility; gamma-Aminobutyric Acid; neural; neurochemistry; novel; programs; recruit; response; sensory cortex; skills; spatiotemporal; spectroscopic imaging; visual deprivation; visual process; white matter

Project Summary/Abstract Early blindness results in dramatic neuroplasticity within the human brain; anatomical and functional organization is altered at almost every level, ranging from neurotransmitter balance to neural function. I plan to combine psychophysics, computational functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), diffusion-weighted MR imaging (dMRI), and MR spectroscopy (MRS) to investigate the anatomical, neural, and computational constraints of plasticity following early blindness. This proposal is driven by the hypothesis that cortical plasticity resulting from early blindness may share many of the same underlying mechanisms as ‘neuronal recycling, whereby the development of novel cortical functions (such as reading in sighted individuals) relies on the ‘recycling’ of evolutionarily older circuits that originally evolved for different, but similar, functions. I plan to examine this idea in the context of cross-modal plasticity within the visual motion area hMT+. Area hMT+, which processes visual motion in sighted individuals, responds selectively to auditory motion in early blind individuals. In Aim 1, using a combination of dMRI and fMRI, I will examine if the cross-modal responses to auditory motion within hMT+ in early blind individuals co-localizes with pre-existing anatomical connectivity between hMT+ and the auditory motion area right planum temporale (rPT). In Aim 2, I will test the hypothesis that auditory motion processing in EB is influenced by the spatiotemporal tuning within hMT+, using a combination of psychophysics and fMRI. In Aim 2, I will also examine whether the recruitment of hMT+ for auditory motion processing in early blind individuals results in a loss of sensitivity to auditory motion in rPT. Finally, in Aim 3, using a combination of psychophysics and fMRI, I will see if auditory motion responses in hMT+ can be explained by a classic model of divisive normalization that has been extensively used to model hMT+ visual motion responses in sighted individuals. By including MRS GABA measurements, I will further test whether the lower signal to noise associated with auditory rather than visual motion input results in an adaptive reduction in suppression, mediated by lower GABA concentrations. The training will focus on computational fMRI, dMRI, and MRS, which will augment my background in characterizing diverse human perceptual experiences using psychophysics and modeling. My mentors at the University of Washington (Drs. Ione Fine, Ariel Rokem, and Scott Murray) will provide excellent training in all the techniques used in this proposal. The award will provide an important opportunity for me to uniquely position myself in the field as an independent researcher with a strong research program that investigates the neuroanatomical basis of plasticity following visual deprivation.

项目概要/摘要 早期失明会导致人脑的解剖和功能组织发生显着的神经可塑性； 几乎每个层面都发生了改变，从神经递质平衡到神经功能，我计划将其结合起来。 心理物理学、计算功能磁共振成像 (fMRI)、扩散加权磁共振成像 （dMRI）和磁共振波谱（MRS）来研究解剖学、神经和计算限制 早期失明后的可塑性是由皮质可塑性产生的假设驱动的。 早期失明可能与“神经元循环”有许多相同的潜在机制，即 新皮层功能的发展（例如视力正常的人的阅读）依赖于“循环利用” 进化上较旧的电路最初是为了不同但相似的功能而进化的。 我计划在视觉运动区域 hMT+ 内的跨模态可塑性的背景下研究这个想法。 hMT+ 能够处理视力正常的人的视觉运动，对早期失明的人选择性地响应听觉运动 在目标 1 中，我将结合使用 dMRI 和 fMRI，检查跨模式反应是否对个体有影响。 早期盲人 hMT+ 内的听觉运动与预先存在的解剖连接性共定位 在目标 2 中，我将检验该假设。 EB 中的听觉运动处理受到 hMT+ 中时空调谐的影响，使用 心理物理学和功能磁共振成像的结合在目标 2 中，我还将检查是否招募 hMT+。 早期盲人的听觉运动处理导致 rPT 中对听觉运动的敏感性丧失。 最后，在目标 3 中，结合使用心理物理学和功能磁共振成像，我将了解 hMT+ 中的听觉运动反应是否 可以用除法归一化的经典模型来解释，该模型已广泛用于建模 hMT+ 通过纳入 MRS GABA 测量，我将进一步测试是否有视力正常的人的视觉运动反应。 与听觉而不是视觉运动输入相关的较低信噪比导致自适应降低 抑制，由较低的 GABA 浓度介导。 培训将重点关注计算功能磁共振成像、dMRI 和 MRS，这将增强我的背景知识 我的导师使用心理物理学和建模来描述不同的人类感知体验。 华盛顿大学（Ione Fine、Ariel Rokem 和 Scott Murray 博士）将在所有领域提供出色的培训 该奖项将为我提供一个独特定位的重要机会。 我自己是该领域的一名独立研究人员，拥有强大的研究计划来调查 视觉剥夺后可塑性的神经解剖学基础。