Thomas D. Albright - US grants

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Associative recall of sensory experiences is part-and-parcel of perception. Through a ubiquitous and automatic process, incomplete, noisy and ambiguous signals ascending from the sensory periphery are fleshed-out and disambiguated by associative memories. Consistent with this view, functional brain imaging studies in humans have shown that recall of visual pictorial memories is correlated with top-down activation of the same cortical areas that process incoming visual stimuli. Using a combination of neurophysiological and behavioral approaches, we have recently begun to explore top-down associative recall signals at the cellular level in primate visual cortex, and to relate these cellular signals to visual imagery and perception. Most importantly, we have discovered highly specific associative recall signals in cortical visual area MT, an area that plays a central role in visual motion processing. Our findings suggest a novel model system for detailed quantitative investigation of the functions and neuronal mechanisms of pictorial memory recall. We have proposed a series of neurophysiological and behavioral experiments designed to improve understanding of the source and plasticity of top-down recall signals, their distribution throughout visual cortex, and the interactions between recall and bottom-up visual sensations. By these means we hope to reveal the dynamic interplay between memory, imagery and perception. The long-term goal of this project is to contribute to the understanding of biological substrates of perception and cognition. Detailed knowledge of the normal functions of visual cortex shall provide insights into the neural events that underlie visual memory, imagery, dreaming and manifestations of perceptual disorders, such as hallucinations. Such information will ultimately aid in the treatment and prevention of neurological and neuropsychiatric disorders of visual perception and memory. These aims are pertinent to the development and use of prosthetic, behavioral, and pharmacological therapies for the visually and mnemonically handicapped.

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The Salk Institute is home to one of the world's premier research communities in systems neuroscience, with a focus on the neural mechanisms that underlie visual perception, visually guided behavior, and visual plasticity, learning and emotion. This research relies upon non-human primates as an ideal model for the human. Building upon its successes, this research community has grown in size and expanded in scope, resulting in conditions that require remediation in order to continue to provide adequate animal care and housing. In response to this problem, the Salk Institute has substantially increased the vivarium space dedicated to non-human primate care and housing. This application seeks funds to help with renovation of this newly-acquired space. The planned renovations will provide five essential improvements, which are: (1) Reduction of overcrowding in animal holding rooms, (2) Provision of dedicated facilities for behavioral and psychological enrichment, (3) Provisions for control of access, traffic flow and security to ensure human and animal safety, (4) Provision of a dedicated facility for non-aseptic procedures, and (5) Provision of space for storage of large equipment items involved in animal care, maintenance and transport. These renovations are designed to optimize the use vivarium space for these research programs and correct various physical deficiencies. The result will greatly enhance our program for animal care and well-being, which will, in turn, help to ensure that the Salk Institute continues along the path of discovery and remains a leader in this area of research.

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The Salk Institute for Biological Studies requests support for renewal of the Core Grant for Vision Research. The Salk Center for the Neurobiology of Vision (CNV) includes 17 research laboratories, 14 at The Salk Institute and basic vision research groups at the University of California at San Diego (UCSD) and The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI). Twelve of these laboratories are currently funded through 13 active R01 grant awards from the National Eye Institute, 10 of them held at The Salk Institute. These vision science investigators come from several different departments, including the Vision Center, Computational Neurobiology, Molecular Neurobiology, Regulatory Biology and Systems Neurobiology Laboratories, and the Laboratory for Cognitive Neuroscience at The Salk Institute; Molecular and Cellular Neuroscience at TSRI; and Psychology and Neurobiology at UCSD. Vision research within the CNV covers broad areas of interest, including visual system development and plasticity, understanding the mechanisms of the neural processing of visual stimuli, visual perception and their link to behaviors, and pathology. In addition to the Administrative Core, the NEI P30 Core Grant will continue support of four established resource and service cores that are critical for CNV research efforts: 1) Molecular Biology and Virology Core, 2) Non-Human Primate Facility Core, 3) Machine Shop Core, and 4) Advanced Computing Core. Each of the cores will have significant use by at least seven core investigators, with the Machine Shop and Advanced Computing Cores supporting all members of the Center. NEI support for the CNV Core Grant for Vision Research will continue to foster new interdisciplinary collaborations, supporting and enhancing the significant synergies that exist between these research efforts and providing the basis for the development of new projects and research programs. Core support will also provide significant leverage for The Salk Institute to stimulate outside philanthropy and to recruit trainees and other new investigators, further expanding vision research at the Institute and advancing the mission of the National Eye Institute.

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): One of the fundamental tenets of sensory biology is that sensory systems adapt to environmental change. It has been argued that adaptation should have the effect of optimizing sensitivity to the new environment. To make this premise concrete and precise, the proposed research builds on a normative theory of visual motion perception, which argues that the visual system will adapt optimally by balancing stimulus and measurement uncertainties. This theory makes predictions about visual spatiotemporal sensitivity as a function of environmental statistics: Adaptive optimization should be manifested as a change in spatiotemporal sensitivity for an observer and for the underlying motion-sensitive neurons. The proposed research will test these predictions. The effects of adaptation on visual sensitivity will be examined in the context of the neuronal representation of speed of visual motion. Adaptation using specific speeds will be used as a means to effect a change in environmental statistics. Both perceptual and neuronal consequences of this adaptation will be recorded, with the expectation that sensitivity changes will reflect the modeled process of optimization. The proposed research constitutes a richly interwoven collection of psychophysical, neurophysiological and theoretical approaches to the topic of visual adaptation. Experiments have been designed to yield an unprecedented body of comprehensive data bearing on the spatiotemporal properties of the primate visual system and the effects of environmental change. These data will be used to further understanding of the phenomenology and mechanism of adaptation.

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The goal of this training program is to provide postdoctoral fellows with interdisciplinary training in visual neuroscience. The Salk Institute has for many years been home to a visual neuroscience community that has been highly productive and progressive in its approach, with an unusual degree of collaboration on topics of shared interest. This community now comprises the Center for the Neurobiology of Vision (CNV), which includes research programs that employ a variety of experimental approaches - molecular, genetic, cellular, systems, and computational - and address the neural structures and events that underlie visual sensation, perception, cognition, visually-guided behavior, visual plasticity, learning, memory and development. The twelve training faculty of the CNV collectively boast a lengthy, diverse and highly successful record of visual neuroscience training of both pre- and postdoctoral students. The proposed training program will place emphasis on research projects that are interdisciplinary, explore visual system organization and function across levels ranging from molecules to behavior, address multiple stages in the processing hierarchy and enable understanding of pathologies of visual function. The administrative structure of the proposed program comprises an Executive Committee with director T. Albright and committee members (E. Callaway, R. Krauzlis, D. O'Leary, and T. Sejnowski) representative of our research strengths: neural correlates of perception, neuronal circuits and mechanisms, development and plasticity, and disorders of visual function. Training will be provided in a range of modern techniques including electrophysiology, neuroanatomy, fMRI, psychophysics, molecular genetics, and theory/computational modeling. In view of the high quality of postdoctoral applicants to our program, the consistent successes of current and past trainees, and diminishing private funds for training in visual Neuroscience, we are requesting support for four postdoctoral trainees, which will ensure the maintenance of this training and leverage the productivity of our fifteen NEI-supported research programs. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: The Salk Institute is home to an extremely active community of scientists investigating the organization, function and development of the visual system. The proposed training of exceptionally qualified postdoctoral fellows in the concepts and techniques of modern visual neuroscience will ensure further advances in understanding of normal visual function and the development of effective treatments for pathologies of vision.

In the proposed study, we will develop and evaluate a product called My MESSAGE (Multimedia Ecopsychosocial Support System for Alzheimer?s within Geriatric Environments), which will circumvent the limitations of traditional visual cues and also provide unprecedented flexibility and precision for assisting with wayfinding and reducing other challenging behaviors in PWD. The target consumer for MM will be nursing homes, assisted living facilities, and adult day centers, all of which serve PWD. The central component of the system will be the MM Display System. Monitors will be installed at carefully-selected locations in locked Special Care Units and/or other residential care facilities for PWD. When a resident nears a monitor, the MM Display System will, through the use of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), recognize that the resident is nearby, retrieve information from a database, and display a customized message, image, or video clip for that specific person. Staff members will be able to create and deploy appropriate messages for each resident from any computer, tablet, or smartphone by accessing the MM Administration Portal. Staff will also have access to the MM Visibility Test, which will allow users to ensure that the message size is appropriate for the PWD. Finally, consumers will have access to the MM Training Module, a 45-minute interactive, SCORM-compliant course, which explain how to use the MM Admin Portal, discuss how to create appropriate messages for PWD, and answer Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs). The Phase 1 study will have the following Specific Aims: (1) develop Alpha Versions of the MM Display System, Administration Portal, Visibility Test, and Training Module, (2) examine the Impact of the MM System on PWD, and (3) examine Staff Satisfaction with the MM System. This Phase 1 Project will set the groundwork for a Phase 2 study in which we will create Beta Versions of all components of the MM System, test the MM System with a larger number of sites and participants, test the System in other settings (including Adult Day Centers and Senior Living Apartments), examine the effect of the product on PWD for a longer period of time, and examine the use of face detection technology for persons who do not wear RFID tags.

Abstract One of the most important questions in neuroscience today concerns the mechanisms by which sensory neurons give rise to perceptual experience. There are many ways to address this question, which have long populated the field of visual neuroscience. Prominent among them is the study of visual selectivity. Observers are highly sensitive to some visual stimuli and less sensitive to others. Visual neurons are also highly selective: Each responds to a limited range of stimuli along several stimulus dimensions. The proposed research aims to understand how the selective pattern of neuronal responses accounts for the observer?s selective perceptual experience and discriminative capacity. This understanding will be achieved through experiments that first evaluate patterns of neuronal selectivity for visual stimuli that vary in their spatial and temporal properties. Second, these data, in combination with manipulations of stimulus context, will be used to develop a novel mechanistic account of neuronal selectivity based on activity within cortical visual circuits stabilized by inhibition. Finally, to understand how neuronal selectivity underlies perceptual experience, direct comparisons will be made between physiological measures of neuronal selectivity and behavioral measures of perceptual selectivity, assessed concurrently under identical conditions. The proposed research constitutes a richly interwoven collection of psychophysical, neurophysiological and theoretical approaches to understanding of spatial and temporal vision. The experiments will yield an unprecedented body of comprehensive data regarding the spatiotemporal tuning of the primate visual system. These data will be used to further understanding of the mechanisms of sensory processing and will provide insights into pathologies of vision caused by trauma, disease and developmental disorders of the brain. !

In addition to their traditional role as a source of emotional rewards and inspiration, the modern mission of art museums is education. Objects of interest are presented in the context of a narrative that the museum visitor follows to learn history, materials, technique, and function, as well as relationships to the natural world and human civilization. Narrative principles for exhibition design have for decades emerged from small scale observational studies of museum visitor behaviors, such as expressions of engagement and choice of path. Building on recent advances in scientific understanding of sensory processing and behavioral choice, in combination with sophisticated computational tools for characterization of fine details of behavior, a team of scientists and museum professionals will turn a designated gallery at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art into a laboratory for investigation of human perception, action, choice, and learning. The broad applied goal of this project is to obtain scientific knowledge that will further enhance the educational mission of museums. The intellectual impact of the project will be an improved understanding of environmental and social factors that guide human behavior under naturalistic conditions. More generally, the project will benefit the larger communities of architecture and design professionals, as a model of experimental methodology and by offering a unique multifaceted dataset for analysis and evaluation of the influence of the built environment.<br/><br/>The project builds upon several technological and computational innovations. One is the methods of computational ethology, which is a new approach to quantitative behavioral analysis that employs high-resolution 3D motion capture together with machine learning methods for behavioral classification. This approach will yield efficient non-invasive measurements of visitor locations, rates of movement, poses, social interactions, gestures and expressions that reflect transitory cognitive states, such as visual attention and engagement with works of art. Observations from tens of thousands of anonymous museum visitors will be subjected to descriptive statistical analyses, to gain insights into the relationship between the structure and content of exhibition design and the behavior of individuals and social groups, and to discover spatial and temporal contingencies between visitor behaviors at different locations in the gallery. Results of these descriptive analyses will be used to develop predictive models of visitor behavior, capturing the full gamut of individual styles of visitor interaction with works of art and other visitors, informed by visitors’ sensory operating characteristics as well as sensory and motoric affordances of the gallery space. In the final stage of the project, strategic modifications to gallery design will be used to test and further develop predictive models in forecasting visitor behaviors. Results will constitute a new empirical framework for exhibition design and its impact on visitor experience.<br/><br/>This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.