小柯机器人

近日，韩国科学技术院Seung-Hee Lee团队发现，额叶皮层的门控前馈抑制释放目标导向的行动。相关论文于2021年8月19日在线发表在《自然—神经科学》杂志上。

研究人员发现前扣带皮层（ACC）中的一个视觉到运动的抑制性回路在小鼠执行视觉Go/No-go任务时触发了精确的行动。ACC神经元的三个不同特征：感觉神经元的视觉振幅、运动神经元的抑制时间和其他神经元的网络活动，预测了小鼠的反应时间。此外，光遗传学激活了ACC的视觉输入，它驱动了快速脉冲的感觉神经元，通过抑制ACC运动神经元和抑制下游的纹状体神经元，促使小鼠采取与任务相关的行动。

值得注意的是，当小鼠因停止信号而终止行动时，运动神经元和网络活动都会增加。总之，这些数据表明，额叶皮层的视觉输入触发了门控前馈抑制，从而启动了目标导向的行动。

据了解，在执行感知任务的动物中，皮层回路同时处理感觉和运动信息。然而，目前仍不清楚感觉输入如何在皮层中转化为运动信号来启动目标导向的行动。

附：英文原文

Title: Gated feedforward inhibition in the frontal cortex releases goal-directed action

Author: Kim, Jae-Hyun, Ma, Dong-Hyun, Jung, Eunji, Choi, Ilsong, Lee, Seung-Hee

Issue&Volume: 2021-08-19

Abstract: Cortical circuits process both sensory and motor information in animals performing perceptual tasks. However, it is still unclear how sensory inputs are transformed into motor signals in the cortex to initiate goal-directed actions. In this study, we found that a visual-to-motor inhibitory circuit in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) triggers precise action in mice performing visual Go/No-go tasks. Three distinct features of ACC neurons—visual amplitudes of sensory neurons, suppression times of motor neurons and network activity from other neurons—predicted response times of the mice. Moreover, optogenetic activation of visual inputs in the ACC, which drives fast-spiking sensory neurons, prompted task-relevant actions in mice by suppressing ACC motor neurons and disinhibiting downstream striatal neurons. Notably, when mice terminated actions in response to stop signals, both motor neuron and network activity increased. Collectively, our data demonstrate that visual inputs to the frontal cortex trigger gated feedforward inhibition to initiate goal-directed actions.

DOI: 10.1038/s41593-021-00910-9

Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41593-021-00910-9

Nature Neuroscience：《自然—神经科学》，创刊于1998年。隶属于施普林格·自然出版集团，最新IF：28.771
官方网址：https://www.nature.com/neuro/
投稿链接：https://mts-nn.nature.com/cgi-bin/main.plex