Integrating sensory information from a variety of sources to produce motor commands is fundamental to human behavior. Impairments in multisensory and sensorimotor integration impact numerous aspects of human health, ranging from social interactions and communication to movements in a complicated environment. For example, directing gaze to the location of a sound is a complex information-processing task requiring the conversion of auditory input signals into motor commands to move the eyes. This process is impaired in human neglect patients. Here, we propose a joint computational and experimental approach to illuminate this problem. Specifically, we will investigate how information about sound location is encoded in the spike trains in primate inferior colliculus, auditory cortex, lateral intraparietal cortex, and superior colliculus when monkeys perform saccades to sounds. We will explore the nature of the response patterns as a function of sound location (Aim 1) and eye position (Aim 2). Of particular interest will be the shape of spatial sensitivity and the effects of eye position on spatial sensitivity. In addition to considering conventional types of spatial sensitivity, we will use novel computational tools to explore whet information can be extracted from these response patterns and provide compact descriptions of the high dimensional data (Aim 3). We will also develop new computational techniques to improve the experimental methods, including adaptive sampling and interactive visualization (Aim 4).
These aims will enhance our understanding of neural processing from sensory input to motor output. The issues of multisensory and sensorimotor integration investigated here bear on a variety of neurological disorders such as those arising from stroke and other types of brain lesions. A better understanding of the transformation from sensory input to motor response will aid in identifying the pathophysiological substrates in neurological disorders with impaired sensorimotor integration.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
7R01NS050942-03
Application #
7086947
Study Section
Special Emphasis Panel (ZRG1-MDCN-G (50))
Program Officer
Liu, Yuan
Project Start
2004-09-01
Project End
2008-06-30
Budget Start
2006-09-01
Budget End
2007-06-30
Support Year
3
Fiscal Year
2006
Total Cost
$233,377
Indirect Cost
Name
Duke University
Department
Psychology
Type
Schools of Arts and Sciences
DUNS #
044387793
City
Durham
State
NC
Country
United States
Zip Code
27705
Caruso, Valeria C; Pages, Daniel S; Sommer, Marc A et al. (2016) Similar prevalence and magnitude of auditory-evoked and visually evoked activity in the frontal eye fields: implications for multisensory motor control. J Neurophysiol 115:3162-73
Lee, Jungah; Groh, Jennifer M (2014) Different stimuli, different spatial codes: a visual map and an auditory rate code for oculomotor space in the primate superior colliculus. PLoS One 9:e85017
Bulkin, David A; Groh, Jennifer M (2012) Distribution of visual and saccade related information in the monkey inferior colliculus. Front Neural Circuits 6:61
Gruters, Kurtis G; Groh, Jennifer M (2012) Sounds and beyond: multisensory and other non-auditory signals in the inferior colliculus. Front Neural Circuits 6:96
Lee, Jungah; Groh, Jennifer M (2012) Auditory signals evolve from hybrid- to eye-centered coordinates in the primate superior colliculus. J Neurophysiol 108:227-42
Bulkin, David A; Groh, Jennifer M (2012) Distribution of eye position information in the monkey inferior colliculus. J Neurophysiol 107:785-95
Wei, Qi; Sueda, Shinjiro; Pai, Dinesh K (2010) Physically-based modeling and simulation of extraocular muscles. Prog Biophys Mol Biol 103:273-83
Maier, Joost X; Groh, Jennifer M (2009) Multisensory guidance of orienting behavior. Hear Res 258:106-12
Mullette-Gillman, O'Dhaniel A; Cohen, Yale E; Groh, Jennifer M (2009) Motor-related signals in the intraparietal cortex encode locations in a hybrid, rather than eye-centered reference frame. Cereb Cortex 19:1761-75
Kopco, Norbert; Lin, I-Fan; Shinn-Cunningham, Barbara G et al. (2009) Reference frame of the ventriloquism aftereffect. J Neurosci 29:13809-14

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