How do cortical representations of eye position impact spatial cognition ?
Eye position helps locate visual stimuli relative to head or body and thus, by aligning vision with other sensory and motor information may contribute to building abstract, multimodal maps for directing attention or for exploring...
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Descripción del proyecto
Eye position helps locate visual stimuli relative to head or body and thus, by aligning vision with other sensory and motor information may contribute to building abstract, multimodal maps for directing attention or for exploring the space. The cortical source of static eye position information has only recently been discovered and the function of eye proprioception in spatial behavior is unknown. Here I propose a research program to characterize the role of eye muscle proprioception in these complex cognitive functions. This proposal builds on my postdoctoral work which pioneered transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) as a method to interfere with cortical proprioceptive processing of eye position in humans. Lateral biases in attention and space exploration are core deficits in body-centered spatial hemineglect. The project will specifically test the hypothesis that a deficit in integrating eye proprioception information in the brain’s networks that subserve visual attention is a source for distorted spatial cognition in neglect. To this end and to exploit the TMS approach maximally I plan to combine it with neuropsychological characterization and lesion-symptom mapping, skills that I wish to learn from my host supervisor. Prof. Karnath is an internationally recognized expert in spatial cognition in healthy and neurological patient populations. I am an MD/PhD with 2 years postdoctoral research experience and a publication record that demonstrate that proprioceptive information can shape action and perception in the visual space.This project will therefore not only produce novel, timely and potentially clinical relevant knowledge about the role of eye proprioception in spatial behavior, but also provide the interdisciplinary training that would allow me to integrate complementary insights from the healthy population and neurological patients into a coherent model for spatial cognition.