小柯机器人

美国索尔克生物研究所Kay M. Tye、中国上海交通大学卢策吾等研究人员合作发现，皮层集合体通过下丘脑输出来协调社会竞争。该项研究成果于2022年3月16日在线发表在《自然》杂志上。

研究人员表示，大多数社会性物种都会自我组织成统治等级，这就减少了攻击性并节约了能量，但不清楚个体如何知道自己的社会等级。人们才开始了解大脑如何代表社会等级，并在此基础上指导行为。内侧前额叶皮层（mPFC）参与了啮齿动物和人类的社会支配地位。然而，mPFC如何精确地编码相对的社会等级，以及哪些回路介导这种计算还不清楚。

研究人员开发了一种社会竞争试验，让小鼠为奖励而竞争，还开发了一种计算机视觉工具（AlphaTracker）来跟踪多个无标记的动物。一个隐藏的马尔科夫模型与广义线性模型相结合，能够从mPFC的集合活动中解码社会竞争行为。mPFC中的种群动态预测了社会等级和竞争成功。最后，研究人员证明，投射到下丘脑外侧的mPFC细胞在奖励竞争中促进了支配行为。因此，研究人员揭示了一个皮层-下丘脑回路，通过该回路，mPFC对社会支配地位进行了自上而下的调节。

附：英文原文

Title: Cortical ensembles orchestrate social competition through hypothalamic outputs

Author: Padilla-Coreano, Nancy, Batra, Kanha, Patarino, Makenzie, Chen, Zexin, Rock, Rachel R., Zhang, Ruihan, Hausmann, Sbastien B., Weddington, Javier C., Patel, Reesha, Zhang, Yu E., Fang, Hao-Shu, Mishra, Srishti, LeDuke, Deryn O., Revanna, Jasmin, Li, Hao, Borio, Matilde, Pamintuan, Rachelle, Bal, Aneesh, Keyes, Laurel R., Libster, Avraham, Wichmann, Romy, Mills, Fergil, Taschbach, Felix H., Matthews, Gillian A., Curley, James P., Fiete, Ila R., Lu, Cewu, Tye, Kay M.

Issue&Volume: 2022-03-16

Abstract: Most social species self-organize into dominance hierarchies1,2, which decreases aggression and conserves energy3,4, but it is not clear how individuals know their social rank. We have only begun to learn how the brain represents social rank5,6,7,8,9 and guides behaviour on the basis of this representation. The medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) is involved in social dominance in rodents7,8 and humans10,11. Yet, precisely how the mPFC encodes relative social rank and which circuits mediate this computation is not known. We developed a social competition assay in which mice compete for rewards, as well as a computer vision tool (AlphaTracker) to track multiple, unmarked animals. A hidden Markov model combined with generalized linear models was able to decode social competition behaviour from mPFC ensemble activity. Population dynamics in the mPFC predicted social rank and competitive success. Finally, we demonstrate that mPFC cells that project to the lateral hypothalamus promote dominance behaviour during reward competition. Thus, we reveal a cortico-hypothalamic circuit by which the mPFC exerts top-down modulation of social dominance.

DOI: 10.1038/s41586-022-04507-5

Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-04507-5

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
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