# Toward an animal model of visual simulation

> **NIH NIH R21** · BROWN UNIVERSITY · 2021 · $232,506

## Abstract

Abstract/Summary
The goal of this project is to develop an animal model for visual simulation. In particular, we aim to show
that animals, like humans, can engage in extended visualization of events not present in the external world.
This capacity is essential, as it allow animals to test strategies and reason about the world using internal
visual machinery. Until now, almost all exploration of visual simulation has been carried out in humans, as
verbal instructions are the most common way to evoke controlled imagined experiences. Here we introduce
a novel task, initially tested in humans, to non-human primate subjects. In Aim 1, we will show that their
performance in this task mirrors that of human subjects. We will then have these trained animal subjects
participate in awake fMRI studies while performing this task, and associated controls, in order to test the
hypothesis that the same visual circuits involved in active perception of dynamic visual events are recruited
during internally driven visual simulation of these events (Aim 2). Successful completion of these aims will
provide a key starting point for the first systematic neurophysiological investigations of visual mental
simulation at the single neuron level. This has significant implications for understanding the rich interplay
between the visual system and higher mental function in both normal perception and neurological disease.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10195217
- **Project number:** 1R21EY032713-01
- **Recipient organization:** BROWN UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** DAVID L SHEINBERG
- **Activity code:** R21 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $232,506
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2021-05-01 → 2023-04-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10195217

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10195217, Toward an animal model of visual simulation (1R21EY032713-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10195217. Licensed CC0.

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