Abstract
Visual awareness – the online access to the content of our visual experience – enables flexibility and experiential richness. Its loss following brain injury can be profoundly disabling. However, patients with blindness resulting from primary visual cortex (V1) damage may retain non-conscious visual functions, even in the absence of awareness. In the VIVA project, we aim to promote the recovery of visual abilities after V1 damage. Achieving this goal requires a paradigm shift: from investigating the neural correlates of visual awareness to identifying its neural causes. To this end, we integrate three main branches of research into a coherent framework: multimodal brain activity measures, behavioral assessments, and cross-species comparisons. We investigate visual awareness by characterizing the local and global brain dynamics associated with conscious and non-conscious vision, across multiple spatial and temporal scales. This involves combining computational neuroimaging in humans with neurophysiological recordings in animal models with V1 lesions. At the micro-scale, we estimate population receptive fields using fMRI, in a way that parallels tuning property analysis in animal physiology. At the macro-scale, we examine interactions across distant brain regions by applying dynamic functional connectivity analyses to fMRI and EEG data. In parallel, we study cortical-subcortical networks in lesioned animal models through chronically implanted multielectrode arrays, focusing on the superior colliculus, pulvinar, and higher-order visual areas. Through this multi-scale approach, we are elucidating with unprecedented spatiotemporal resolution: 1) how specific brain structures translate visual inputs into signals associated with awareness; 2) how damage reshapes response properties in intact areas; 3) how multiplex functional dynamics emerge at the level of large-scale networks. Building on these insights, we are developing pre-clinical interventions aimed at supporting the (re)emergence of visual awareness after V1 damage. We apply novel non-invasive stimulation protocols that target complex cortical circuits and enhance directional connectivity to promote Hebbian plasticity and boost visual perception. Once refined in healthy individuals, these interventions will be adapted for use in patients. In parallel, in implanted monkeys, we apply deep-brain stimulation techniques with high temporal precision to modulate subcortical structures such as the pulvinar involved in non-conscious vision. We expect that these integrated efforts will lead to new therapeutic strategies for restoring visual functions, grounded in solid neuroscientific evidence.
Project details
Unibo Team Leader: Alessio Avenanti
Unibo involved Department/s:
Dipartimento di Psicologia "Renzo Canestrari"
Coordinator:
ALMA MATER STUDIORUM - Università di Bologna(Italy)
Total Eu Contribution: Euro (EUR) 212.500,00
Total Unibo Contribution: Euro (EUR) 85.000,00
Project Duration in months: 24
Start Date:
05/10/2023
End Date:
31/12/2025
