小柯机器人

英国牛津大学Adam M. Packer课题组发现，通过皮层层次和感知的活动传播是由神经变异性决定的。该项研究成果发表在2023年8月28日出版的《自然—神经科学》上。

他们通过产生在大脑区域之间传播并驱动行为的神经活动来直接研究这一过程，评估感觉皮层中的神经群如何合作传递信息。他们在对小鼠S1神经元进行双光子光刺激的同时，对两个紧密相连的区域——初级和次级体感皮层(S1和S2)进行成像，并将光刺激的行为显著性分配给它们。

他们发现，感知的概率不仅取决于光刺激的强度，还取决于S1神经活动的变异性。因此，最大化皮层中刺激表征相对于噪声或变异性的信噪比对于促进活动传播和感知至关重要。

据悉，大脑由解剖学和功能上不同的区域组成，这些区域执行专门的任务，但这些区域并不是孤立地运作的。复杂行为的协调需要大脑区域之间的交流，但是神经动力学是如何组织起来促进可靠的传递的还不是很清楚。

附：英文原文

Title: Propagation of activity through the cortical hierarchy and perception are determined by neural variability

Author: Rowland, James M., van der Plas, Thijs L., Loidolt, Matthias, Lees, Robert M., Keeling, Joshua, Dehning, Jonas, Akam, Thomas, Priesemann, Viola, Packer, Adam M.

Issue&Volume: 2023-08-28

Abstract: Brains are composed of anatomically and functionally distinct regions performing specialized tasks, but regions do not operate in isolation. Orchestration of complex behaviors requires communication between brain regions, but how neural dynamics are organized to facilitate reliable transmission is not well understood. Here we studied this process directly by generating neural activity that propagates between brain regions and drives behavior, assessing how neural populations in sensory cortex cooperate to transmit information. We achieved this by imaging two densely interconnected regions—the primary and secondary somatosensory cortex (S1 and S2)—in mice while performing two-photon photostimulation of S1 neurons and assigning behavioral salience to the photostimulation. We found that the probability of perception is determined not only by the strength of the photostimulation but also by the variability of S1 neural activity. Therefore, maximizing the signal-to-noise ratio of the stimulus representation in cortex relative to the noise or variability is critical to facilitate activity propagation and perception.

DOI: 10.1038/s41593-023-01413-5

Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41593-023-01413-5

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