美国哈佛医学院Mark L. Andermann小组发现，近期感知体验的皮层重激活能够预测学习过程中双向网络的变化。这一研究成果于2020年6月8日在线发表在《自然—神经科学》上。

随着小鼠学习了视觉识别任务，研究人员在视觉联想皮层中成像了数百个神经元。不同的视觉提示激活了不同的神经元模式。这些相同的模式随后在黑暗中安静醒来时被重新激活，在早期学习过程中以及相对于中性提示进行食物预测时具有更高的重新激活率。涉及编码食物线索和奖励神经元集合的重新激活预测了参与神经元第二天功能连接性的增强，而仅编码食物线索集合的重新激活被观察到相反现象。

研究人员认为，与任务相关的神经元会增强，而与任务无关的神经元则通过参与不同类型的重新激活来削弱其与神经网络的对话。

据了解，重要的经验通常会在脑海中重现。人类神经影像学研究表明，这种经历会驱动视觉联想皮层的活动模式，随后在安静的清醒中重新激活。然而，这种重新激活的回路后果仍然不清楚。

附：英文原文

Title: Cortical reactivations of recent sensory experiences predict bidirectional network changes during learning

Author: Arthur U. Sugden, Jeffrey D. Zaremba, Lauren A. Sugden, Kelly L. McGuire, Andrew Lutas, Rohan N. Ramesh, Osama Alturkistani, Kristian K. Lensj, Christian R. Burgess, Mark L. Andermann

Issue&Volume: 2020-06-08

Abstract: Salient experiences are often relived in the mind. Human neuroimaging studies suggest that such experiences drive activity patterns in visual association cortex that are subsequently reactivated during quiet waking. Nevertheless, the circuit-level consequences of such reactivations remain unclear. Here, we imaged hundreds of neurons in visual association cortex across days as mice learned a visual discrimination task. Distinct patterns of neurons were activated by different visual cues. These same patterns were subsequently reactivated during quiet waking in darkness, with higher reactivation rates during early learning and for food-predicting versus neutral cues. Reactivations involving ensembles of neurons encoding both the food cue and the reward predicted strengthening of next-day functional connectivity of participating neurons, while the converse was observed for reactivations involving ensembles encoding only the food cue. We propose that task-relevant neurons strengthen while task-irrelevant neurons weaken their dialog with the network via participation in distinct flavors of reactivation.

DOI: 10.1038/s41593-020-0651-5

Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41593-020-0651-5