H2020Индивидуална стипендия2018–2020

INTEREP · Do cortical feedback connections store statistical knowledge of the environment?

„Хоризонт 2020“ — Действия „Мария Склодовска-Кюри“

Период: 2018-03-01 → 2020-02-29
Финансиране от ЕС: 148 636 €
Участници: 1
Схема: MSCA-IF

Линиите свързват координатора с партньорите.

Накратко на български

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Този кратък обзор е генериран от изкуствен интелект

Кратко обяснение, генерирано от езиков модел по текста на CORDIS. Оригиналът е по-долу.

Резултати накратко

Do cortical feedback connections store statistical knowledge of the environment?

Schizophrenic patients show difficulties in learning and representing behaviorally relevant percepts when the selection of relevant information is determined by previous experience. In this project, we aimed at determining how our knowledge of world,inferred from past experience is stored in the brain. While work on the influence of internal representations on sensory processing has been conducted from a cognitive or computational point-of-view, this study approaches the question at the brain circuit level. Vision arises from a set of hierarchically-organized areas where neurons in early cortical stages represent simple attributes (such as orientation or direction of line elements) while areas higher in the hierarchy encode progressively more complex aspects of the world. The buildup of these increasingly complex representations is thought to depend on feedforward connections, those that link lower to higher order areas. However, a large number of feedback (FB) projections reciprocally link higher areas to lower areas. Given the complex attributes they represent, FB projections are ideally positioned to influence the sensory responses of lower-order areas carrying predictions based on the learned statistics of visual inputs. In this project, we investigated whether prior knowledge about the world is stored in the connectional specificity of FB axons. By investigating the specificity of functional wiring of feedback loops in the brain, this project might also inspire the fields of computer science and information technology. Neuronal network-inspired structures could use the rules of feedback wiring established in this proposal – with wiring instructed by input statistics – to design better performing machine learning algorithms.

Текст от CORDIS, на английски · Данни: CORDIS, © Европейски съюз

Цел на проекта

Perception is shaped both by sensory information and internal variables. Our brain uses regularities of environmental factors to make predictions, and combines them with sensory stimuli to form percepts. However, where and how the statistical knowledge of the environment is stored and learned remains unexplored. Visual perception arises from a set of hierarchically-organized cortical areas, with abundant feedback connections from higher to lower areas. In this proposal, I will test if knowledge of the world is stored in the connectional specificity of feedback projections. I hypothesize that the tuning-specific wiring pattern of feedback projections terminating in mouse primary visual cortex (V1) reflects spatiotemporal statistics of the visual environment. To do so, I will first assess the role of sensory experience in feedback wiring. I will visually-deprive mice or raise them in artificial environments with altered visual statistics. Using a novel combination of dual-color optical recordings, I will measure how connectional specificity of functionally characterized feedback axons in V1 relates to the animal’s visual experience. I will also determine if spatiotemporal patterns of neuronal activity are sufficient for establishing the wiring organization. Shedding light on the enigmatic role of feedback connections will also provide a mechanistic description of how internal factors shape perception. The specific deficits in feedback function could have a potential bearing on behavioral disorders like schizophrenia in which patients manifest a difficulty in learning and representing behaviorally relevant percepts when the selection of relevant information is determined by prior knowledge. Thus, this work will not only be imperative for a better understanding of how prior knowledge influence perception, but also for getting a deeper insight into brain disorders.

Оригинален текст от CORDIS (на английски).

Участници

FUNDACAO D. ANNA DE SOMMER CHAMPALIMAUD E DR. CARLOS MONTEZ CHAMPALIMAUD · LISBOAКоординаторПортугалия