小柯机器人

美国马萨诸塞州综合医院Ziv M. Williams研究组开发出了驱动竞争行为和社会群体生态的额叶神经元。这一研究成果发表在2022年3月16日出版的国际学术期刊《自然》上。

他们开发了一种自然主义的群体范式，在这种范式中，当他们无线追踪数千个独特交互中的神经元活动时，大量小鼠竞争性地觅食。通过追踪这些群体的集体行为，他们发现前扣带回中的神经元自适应地代表了动物相对于其他动物的社会等级。虽然社会等级在行为上与成功密切相关，但这些细胞消除了小鼠的相对等级与它们的竞争行为的歧义，并结合了关于可用资源、环境和小鼠过去成功的信息来影响它们的决定。使用多类模型，他们展示了这些神经元如何跟踪组内的其他人并准确预测即将到来的成功。

使用神经调节技术，他们还展示了神经元如何有条件地影响竞争努力——仅当动物对同伴更占优势时才增加努力，而当它们处于从属地位时降低努力——在其他额叶区域未观察到这种影响。总之，这些发现揭示了用于自适应驱动竞争性互动的扣带回神经元和一个可以调节群体社会和经济行为的假定过程。

据了解，竞争性互动在大多数动物物种的生态学中发挥着至关重要的作用并有力地影响了群体的行为。要取得成功，个人不仅要根据可用资源，还要根据其他群体成员的社会地位和行为做出努力。然而，精确驱动竞争性互动或社会群体行为的单细胞机制仍然知之甚少。

附：英文原文

Title: Frontal neurons driving competitive behaviour and ecology of social groups

Author: Li, S. William, Zeliger, Omer, Strahs, Leah, Bez-Mendoza, Raymundo, Johnson, Lance M., McDonald Wojciechowski, Aidan, Williams, Ziv M.

Issue&Volume: 2022-03-16

Abstract: Competitive interactions have a vital role in the ecology of most animal species1,2,3 and powerfully influence the behaviour of groups4,5. To succeed, individuals must exert effort based on not only the resources available but also the social rank and behaviour of other group members2,6,7. The single-cellular mechanisms that precisely drive competitive interactions or the behaviour of social groups, however, remain poorly understood. Here we developed a naturalistic group paradigm in which large cohorts of mice competitively foraged for food as we wirelessly tracked neuronal activities across thousands of unique interactions. By following the collective behaviour of the groups, we found neurons in the anterior cingulate that adaptively represented the social rank of the animals in relation to others. Although social rank was closely behaviourally linked to success, these cells disambiguated the relative rank of the mice from their competitive behaviour, and incorporated information about the resources available, the environment, and past success of the mice to influence their decisions. Using multiclass models, we show how these neurons tracked other individuals within the group and accurately predicted upcoming success. Using neuromodulation techniques, we also show how the neurons conditionally influenced competitive effort—increasing the effort of the animals only when they were more dominant to their groupmates and decreasing it when they were subordinate—effects that were not observed in other frontal lobe areas. Together, these findings reveal cingulate neurons that serve to adaptively drive competitive interactions and a putative process that could intermediate the social and economic behaviour of groups.

DOI: 10.1038/s41586-021-04000-5

Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-04000-5

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
官方网址：http://www.nature.com/
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