2021年4月12日，英国伦敦大学学院Daniel C. McNamee等研究人员在《自然—神经科学》杂志发表论文，揭示出内嗅-海马系统中序列生成的灵活调节信号。
研究人员理论化了大脑应该如何使内部生成的序列适应特定的认知功能，并提出了一种神经机制，通过该机制可以在内嗅-海马回路内完成这一过程。具体而言，研究人员表明，向海马输入的系统调节信号促进了灵活的生成过程。通过将从这个模型中得出的新兴海马活动模式与经验数据相关联，研究人员可以解释并调和最近观察到的，但显然不相关的多种现象，例如生殖循环、海马扩散激活和跳跃轨迹事件。
据悉，探索、确认以及规划取决于顺序状态表现的生成。但是，这些算法需要不同形式的采样动态，从而实现最佳性能。
附：英文原文
Title: Flexible modulation of sequence generation in the entorhinal–hippocampal system
Author: Daniel C. McNamee, Kimberly L. Stachenfeld, Matthew M. Botvinick, Samuel J. Gershman
Issue&Volume: 2021-04-12
Abstract: Exploration, consolidation and planning depend on the generation of sequential state representations. However, these algorithms require disparate forms of sampling dynamics for optimal performance. We theorize how the brain should adapt internally generated sequences for particular cognitive functions and propose a neural mechanism by which this may be accomplished within the entorhinal–hippocampal circuit. Specifically, we demonstrate that the systematic modulation along the medial entorhinal cortex dorsoventral axis of grid population input into the hippocampus facilitates a flexible generative process that can interpolate between qualitatively distinct regimes of sequential hippocampal reactivations. By relating the emergent hippocampal activity patterns drawn from our model to empirical data, we explain and reconcile a diversity of recently observed, but apparently unrelated, phenomena such as generative cycling, diffusive hippocampal reactivations and jumping trajectory events.
DOI: 10.1038/s41593-021-00831-7
Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41593-021-00831-7
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
本期文章：《自然—神经科学》：Online/在线发表
