美国德克萨斯大学Robbe L. T. Goris课题组揭示前额叶皮层视觉运动神经元的抽象审议。这一研究成果于2024年4月29日在线发表在国际学术期刊《自然—神经科学》上。

研究人员揭示了猕猴前额叶皮层中的神经群活动，这些猕猴经过训练，能够灵活地报告对模棱两可的视觉刺激的感知判断。研究人员发现，神经群活动最初代表知觉选择的形成，然后才过渡到运动计划的表征。刺激强度和先前预期都会影响知觉选择的形成，但不会影响行动计划的形成。

这些结果表明，参与行动选择的前额叶回路也用于审议脱离具体运动计划的抽象命题，从而为抽象推理提供了一个重要机制。

据介绍，在视觉引导行为的过程中，前额叶皮层在将感觉输入映射到适当的运动计划上起着关键作用。当感觉输入模棱两可时，这就需要考虑。目前还不清楚这种斟酌是作为可能的刺激解释之间的竞争，还是可能的运动计划之间的竞争来实现的。

附：英文原文

Title: Abstract deliberation by visuomotor neurons in prefrontal cortex

Author: Charlton, Julie A., Goris, Robbe L. T.

Issue&Volume: 2024-04-29

Abstract: During visually guided behavior, the prefrontal cortex plays a pivotal role in mapping sensory inputs onto appropriate motor plans. When the sensory input is ambiguous, this involves deliberation. It is not known whether the deliberation is implemented as a competition between possible stimulus interpretations or between possible motor plans. Here we study neural population activity in the prefrontal cortex of macaque monkeys trained to flexibly report perceptual judgments of ambiguous visual stimuli. We find that the population activity initially represents the formation of a perceptual choice before transitioning into the representation of the motor plan. Stimulus strength and prior expectations both bear on the formation of the perceptual choice, but not on the formation of the action plan. These results suggest that prefrontal circuits involved in action selection are also used for the deliberation of abstract propositions divorced from a specific motor plan, thus providing a crucial mechanism for abstract reasoning.

DOI: 10.1038/s41593-024-01635-1

Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41593-024-01635-1