瑞士巴塞尔大学Andreas Lüthi小组发现，杏仁核参与探索行为的状态依赖编码。这一研究成果于2021年3月3日在线发表在国际学术期刊《自然》上。
据研究人员介绍，动物的行为取决于新陈代谢、情感和社会因素。根据其状态，动物将会专注于避免威胁、觅食或社交活动，并表现出适当的行为方式。此外，生存和繁殖取决于动物通过优先考虑适当状态来适应环境变化的能力。尽管这些状态被认为与大脑系统的特定功能配置有关，但对基本原理的理解却很少。
研究人员对进行空间或社会探索的小鼠使用了深脑钙成像，来研究这些过程如何在基底外侧杏仁核的神经元群体水平上呈现。基底外侧杏仁核是大脑中整合情感、社交和代谢信息的区域。研究人员证明了基底外侧杏仁核通过两个大的、功能缓慢的且表现出缓慢动态的功能相关编码来参与探索行为。研究人员发现，空间和社会探索是由正交的成对组合编码的，神经元根据刺激的显著性具有稳定且分级的神经元分配。
这些发现表明，基底外侧杏仁核起着低维但依赖于背景的分层分类器作用，从而对与状态有关的行为表述进行编码。这种计算功能可能在调节健康和疾病的内部状态方面起着根本性作用。
附：英文原文
Title: State-dependent encoding of exploratory behaviour in the amygdala
Author: Maria Sol Fustiana, Tobias Eichlisberger, Tewis Bouwmeester, Yael Bitterman, Andreas Lthi
Issue&Volume: 2021-03-03
Abstract: The behaviour of an animal is determined by metabolic, emotional and social factors1,2. Depending on its state, an animal will focus on avoiding threats, foraging for food or on social interactions, and will display the appropriate behavioural repertoire3. Moreover, survival and reproduction depend on the ability of an animal to adapt to changes in the environment by prioritizing the appropriate state4. Although these states are thought to be associated with particular functional configurations of large-brain systems5,6, the underlying principles are poorly understood. Here we use deep-brain calcium imaging of mice engaged in spatial or social exploration to investigate how these processes are represented at the neuronal population level in the basolateral amygdala, which is a region of the brain that integrates emotional, social and metabolic information. We demonstrate that the basolateral amygdala encodes engagement in exploratory behaviour by means of two large, functionally anticorrelated ensembles that exhibit slow dynamics. We found that spatial and social exploration were encoded by orthogonal pairs of ensembles with stable and hierarchical allocation of neurons according to the saliency of the stimulus. These findings reveal that the basolateral amygdala acts as a low-dimensional, but context-dependent, hierarchical classifier that encodes state-dependent behavioural repertoires. This computational function may have a fundamental role in the regulation of internal states in health and disease. Deep-brain calcium imaging of mice engaged in social or spatial exploration reveals that these state-dependent behaviours are encoded by distinct neuronal ensembles of the basolateral amygdala.
DOI: 10.1038/s41586-021-03301-z
Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-03301-z
Nature：《自然》，创刊于1869年。隶属于施普林格·自然出版集团，最新IF：69.504
官方网址：http://www.nature.com/
投稿链接：http://www.nature.com/authors/submit_manuscript.html
本期文章：《自然》：Online/在线发表
