? This proposal is to establish a Center for Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE) at North Dakota State University on the topic of VISUAL NEUROSCIENCE, which specifically advances the mission of the Strabismus, Amblyopia and Visual Processing program of the National Eye Institute. The proposed Center will consist of four thematically interrelated projects, each directed by a junior investigator, assisted by onsite and off-site senior scientist mentors, which examine various aspects of the neural mechanisms and functional significance of visual perception, visual cognition and action. These four projects, together with proposed core research laboratories, new faculty recruitments, and administrative core facilities, will be instrumental in our attaining the long-range objective: To develop a diversely talented, yet focused, interactive and collaborative research group of critical mass devoted to analyzing visual performance in normal and dysfunctional states, to develop clinically useful diagnostic tests for assessing visual performance, to understand the neural mechanisms that control eye movements under natural environmental conditions, to understand how the brain processes visual information, how neural activity is related to visual perception, and how visual processing interacts with other brain systems which underlie cognition and action.
The Specific Aims of this COBRE application are: 1) To develop successful, independent, self-sustaining research projects for the COBRE Project Directors to enable future success in obtaining R01 funding; 2) To enhance the biobehavioral research infrastructure at NDSU through the development of multi-user core laboratory facilities; 3) To expand NDSU's research capability in visual neuroscience by recruiting two additional faculty members with research expertise in key areas; 4) To establish a nationally recognized and acclaimed Center for Visual Neuroscience at North Dakota State University. The realization of these Specific Aims will establish a center of research excellence at NDSU that will attract quality faculty, postdoctoral fellows and graduate students interested in research in the visual sciences. The resulting Center will be competitive for Institutional Training Grants (T32), Research Project Grants (R01), Core Grants (P30) and Infrastructure Development Grants (R24) that will sustain the Center beyond the initial five years of support. ? ?
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