We request funds to purchase a computer system that will be used by a group of eight integrative neuroscientists for data analysis and neural modeling related to the function of the brain. The computer system, to be purchased from Digital Equipment Corporation, will be based on the reduced instruction set computing (RISC) technology. It would consist of a DECsystem 5900 file server with 6 GB of disk storage and 17 DECstation 5000 workstations. The system will be centralized by running the workstations off the file server to facilitate the sharing of data and programs for analyzing data and for neural modeling. The computer will be a central research tool for, and will reside in the shared computer rooms of, the newly-renovated W.M. Keck Foundation Center for Integrative Neuroscience at UCSF. Research projects that will use the computer system will include: 1) quantitative analysis of the synaptic mechanisms that control the processing of visual information in the retina (Copenhagen); 2) studies of the biophysics of phototransduction in rod photoreceptors (Korenbrot); 3) investigation of the site and mechanisms of motor learning in the vestibulo-ocular reflex and of sensory-motor transformations in the control of pursuit eye movements (Lisberger); 4) studies of use-dependent plasticity in the cerebral cortex of primates and development and analysis of an implantable pediatric cochlear implant (Merzenich); 5) cellular and pharmacological analysis of the integration of synaptic inputs and of long-term potentiation in cells in the hippocampus (Nicoll); 6) analysis of how inputs from cone photoreceptors combine to yield the percept of color (Schnapf); 7) quantitative analysis of the representation and encoding of complex, speech-like sounds in the auditory cortex (Schreiner); 8) investigation of the signals and mechanisms that control the development of the visual cortex in infants (Stryker).
