德国马克斯·普朗克大脑研究所Hiroshi T. Ito、Raunak Basu等研究人员合作发现，眶额叶皮层描绘未来的导航目标。2021年10月27日，国际知名学术期刊《自然》在线发表了这一成果。
研究人员描述了大鼠眶额皮层（OFC）中的神经元，它们形成的空间表征在整个导航过程中持续地指向动物的后续目标目的地。这种目标编码在导航开始前就出现，没有直接的感官接触到远端目标，甚至在错误试验开始时就能预测动物的错误目标。OFC中的目标表征是由目的地特定的神经集合动态维持的，它们在旅程开始时的短暂扰动导致了导航错误。这些发现表明，OFC是大脑内部目标地图的一部分，使动物能够精确地导航到所选择的、超出感官感知范围的目的地。
据介绍，准确地导航到一个期望的目标需要在整个旅程中连续估计当前位置和未来目的地之间的空间关系。尽管海马形成中的神经元可以代表动物的位置以及其附近的轨迹，但它们在确定动物的目的地方面的作用受到了质疑。因此，目前还不清楚在主动的环境探索中，大脑是否能拥有对目标位置的精确估计。
附：英文原文
Title: The orbitofrontal cortex maps future navigational goals
Author: Basu, Raunak, Gebauer, Robert, Herfurth, Tim, Kolb, Simon, Golipour, Zahra, Tchumatchenko, Tatjana, Ito, Hiroshi T.
Issue&Volume: 2021-10-27
Abstract: Accurate navigation to a desired goal requires consecutive estimates of spatial relationships between the current position and future destination throughout the journey. Although neurons in the hippocampal formation can represent the position of an animal as well as its nearby trajectories1,2,3,4,5,6,7, their role in determining the destination of the animal has been questioned8,9. It is, thus, unclear whether the brain can possess a precise estimate of target location during active environmental exploration. Here we describe neurons in the rat orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) that form spatial representations persistently pointing to the subsequent goal destination of an animal throughout navigation. This destination coding emerges before the onset of navigation, without direct sensory access to a distal goal, and even predicts the incorrect destination of an animal at the beginning of an error trial. Goal representations in the OFC are maintained by destination-specific neural ensemble dynamics, and their brief perturbation at the onset of a journey led to a navigational error. These findings suggest that the OFC is part of the internal goal map of the brain, enabling animals to navigate precisely to a chosen destination that is beyond the range of sensory perception.
DOI: 10.1038/s41586-021-04042-9
Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-04042-9
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
