群感受野技术在感知觉的脑机制研究领域的应用

Applications of the population receptive field technique in the field of neural mechanisms of sensory perception

体素(功能性磁共振成像的基本单元)的群感受野是指体素内所有神经元的联合感受野。通过使用非侵入式的群感受野技术,研究者可以获得人类大脑里每个体素的群感受野参数(包括:群感受野的位置和大小参数)。这些群感受野参数为研究感知觉的脑机制提供了一个很好的研究基础。虽然群感受野技术最近几年发展非常迅速,也已经广泛应用于感知觉的各个研究领域,但相关的综述类文章仍然缺乏。针对这一现状,本文首先对群感受野技术的研究方法进行了简单的介绍,其次对群感受野技术在感知觉的脑机制研究领域的应用进行了重点、详细的总结,然后分析了群感受野技术的应用优势和局限,最后结合我们的理解对群感受野技术的未来应用方向给出了建议。虽然,群感受野技术在感知觉的脑机制研究领域已经发挥了重要的作用,但这仅仅是这种技术应用的开始,未来它还将在感知觉的脑机制研究领域发挥更重要的作用。

The population receptive field(pRF) of a voxel is the joint receptive field of the population of neurons within the voxel.Using a non-invasive pRF technique, researcher can estimate the pRF position and size parameters of each voxel in human brain.These pRF parameters provide an excellent research basis to study neural mechanisms of sensory perception. Although the pRF technique has developed very rapidly in recent years and been widely used in the field of neural mechanisms of sensory perception, related review article is still absent. Here, we provide an overview of the pRF technique. First, we briefly introduce research methods of this technique. Next, we focus on applications of this technique in the field of neural mechanisms of sensory perception. Then, we discuss advantages and limitations of the pRF technique in practical application. In the end, we give some suggestions on the future application direction of the pRF technique. The pRF technique has played an important role in the research of neural mechanism of sensory perception, and it would play a more important role in the future.