小柯机器人

美国艾伦研究所Shawn R. Olsen和Christof Koch研究团队合作取得一项新突破。他们的研究表明小鼠视觉皮层调控其后向遮蔽。2023年11月13日，国际学术期刊《自然-神经科学》发表了这一成果。

研究人员在小鼠和人类中进行了一项后向遮蔽任务，在这项任务中严密掩盖了刺激物的位置。人类的主观能见度降低与行为缺陷有关。在小鼠中，遮蔽和视觉皮层（V1）的光遗传沉默都会在相似的时间过程中降低表现，但对反应率和准确性有不同的影响。当对长时窗口而非短时窗口进行量化时，V1的活动与遮蔽行为一致。双累加器模型同时再现了小鼠和人类的行为。该模型和受试者的表现表明，V1的初始尖峰可触发正确的反应，但随后V1的活动会降低反应表现。

与这一假设一致的是，光遗传抑制V1中由遮蔽物诱发的活动可完全恢复准确行为。这些结果共同证明，小鼠和人类一样容易受到遮蔽的影响，而且目标和遮蔽信息首先会在V1的下游发生混淆。

研究人员表示，视觉遮蔽可以揭示感知的时间尺度，但其潜在的神经机制尚不清楚。

附：英文原文

Title: Backward masking in mice requires visual cortex

Author: Gale, Samuel D., Strawder, Chelsea, Bennett, Corbett, Mihalas, Stefan, Koch, Christof, Olsen, Shawn R.

Issue&Volume: 2023-11-13

Abstract: Visual masking can reveal the timescale of perception, but the underlying circuit mechanisms are not understood. Here we describe a backward masking task in mice and humans in which the location of a stimulus is potently masked. Humans report reduced subjective visibility that tracks behavioral deficits. In mice, both masking and optogenetic silencing of visual cortex (V1) reduce performance over a similar timecourse but have distinct effects on response rates and accuracy. Activity in V1 is consistent with masked behavior when quantified over long, but not short, time windows. A dual accumulator model recapitulates both mouse and human behavior. The model and subjects’ performance imply that the initial spikes in V1 can trigger a correct response, but subsequent V1 activity degrades performance. Supporting this hypothesis, optogenetically suppressing mask-evoked activity in V1 fully restores accurate behavior. Together, these results demonstrate that mice, like humans, are susceptible to masking and that target and mask information is first confounded downstream of V1.

DOI: 10.1038/s41593-023-01488-0

Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41593-023-01488-0

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