嗅知觉对视觉场景表征的影响及神经机制

A premise of spatial navigation, spatial representation is essential to the survival of most species including humans. Recent research efforts in probing the role of sensory processing in spatial representation have largely focused on vision, despite that inputs from other sensory modalities also convey rich spatial information. Given the anatomical affinity and functional linkage between the olfactory system and spatial representation, we propose here a series of psychophysical and brain imaging studies to examine the impact of olfactory cues on visual scene representation and perception. We expect the proposed studies to provide fresh insight into how cross-modal environmental inputs are exploited in spatial representation.

空间表征对生物体的生存和繁衍具有重要的意义，也是学术界的研究热点。但是，环境中的感觉刺激，目前还仅限于视觉场景信息，在空间表征中发挥的作用才初见端倪。关于场景信息的跨通道整合更是当下领域的研究空白。跨通道的信息整合，恰恰是最为有效的加工盈千累万且瞬息万变的环境刺激的途径。嗅觉从解剖结构到基本功能，都与场景认知，乃至空间表征、环境导航非常契合。所以，本项目选择嗅觉与视觉作为研究对象，采用心理物理和脑成像的研究方法，考察在视觉的场景表征中，嗅觉线索所产生的行为效应以及背后的神经机制。希望可以获得当前比较稀缺的关于嗅觉对于视觉认知产生影响及相关脑区的启示。同时，也希望可以将涉及空间表征的神经环路扩展到多感觉通道信息整合的广阔区域。