Neural Mechanisms of Active Vision in Freely Moving Marmosets - PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT How does the primate visual system support visual processing when freely moving and exploring the real world? While traditional experimental paradigms have revealed many of the sensory coding mechanisms involved in this process, little remains known about how these sensory processes are influenced by the various related motor actions as individuals actively explore and engage with the natural visual world in primates. To bridge this gap, Here I propose to leverage an innovative head-mounted eye-tracking system in freely moving marmosets that allows for the precise quantification of eye, head, body movement and visual scene while simultaneously recording the activity of neurons in the visual cortex of freely-moving marmoset monkeys. Our cutting-edge technological approach has laid the foundation for generating first-ever data to study the primate visual system during natural visual behaviors. In preliminary experiments, I have observed rich neural response in the primary visual cortex (V1) associated with movement components – eye, head and body movements of the monkey. In the research proposed here, I build on these preliminary findings to address fundamental questions of how the primate visual system, including V1, visual area V4, and frontal eye field (FEF), supports active vision in freely moving primates in a series of independent but complementary Aims. In Aim 1, I will investigate the integrative role of active vision in V1 induced by self-generated changes to visual input and non-visual signal modulation by recording the activity of single neurons in V1 simultaneously with visual scene, eye, head, and body tracking in freely moving marmosets. In Aim 2, I will combine head-mounted eye-tracking and large-scale population recording techniques in freely moving marmosets to investigate the coordination of FEF and V4 in supporting attention modulated visual processing during active behavioral exploration. In Aim 3, I will leverage optogenetic tools to manipulate the balance between inhibition and excitation in FEF and investigate its influence on the population activity in FEF and visual behavior generation in complex environment and ethological contexts. The training phase of the award will be conducted in the laboratories of Dr. Cory Miller at UC San Diego and co-mentored by Dr. Alexander Huk. The project outlines a comprehensive plan for the acquisition of technical and professional skills that will enable my transition to an independent research position. The successful completion of this project will provide a platform for future experiments aimed at understanding the neural mechanisms underlying visual processing of naturally behaving primates.
