波恩大学Florian Mormann研究组取得一项新突破。他们报道了放电的相位不反映人类序列记忆和循环神经网络的时间顺序。这一研究成果发表在2025年3月24日出版的国际学术期刊《自然—神经科学》上。

在这里，该团队通过测量16例癫痫患者在执行工作记忆任务时的单个神经元活动（1,420个神经元）和局部场电位（921个通道）来评估这一点。在记忆维持过程中，该研究组观察到theta振荡、单个神经元对theta相位的优先放电以及放电相位与项目位置的密切关系。

但是，发射顺序与项目顺序不匹配。相反，他们的结果表明相序、刺激时间和振荡频率之间存在机制联系。在生物神经网络和人工神经网络中，该课题组提供了支持放电阶段在工作记忆加工中的作用的证据。

据悉，一系列事件的时间顺序被认为反映在神经元在θ波振荡的不同阶段的有序放电中。

附：英文原文

Title: Phase of firing does not reflect temporal order in sequence memory of humans and recurrent neural networks

Author: Liebe, Stefanie, Niediek, Johannes, Pals, Matthijs, Reber, Thomas P., Faber, Jennifer, Bostrm, Jan, Elger, Christian E., Macke, Jakob H., Mormann, Florian

Issue&Volume: 2025-03-24

Abstract: The temporal order of a sequence of events has been thought to be reflected in the ordered firing of neurons at different phases of theta oscillations. Here we assess this by measuring single neuron activity (1,420 neurons) and local field potentials (921 channels) in the medial temporal lobe of 16 patients with epilepsy performing a working-memory task for temporal order. During memory maintenance, we observe theta oscillations, preferential firing of single neurons to theta phase and a close relationship between phase of firing and item position. However, the firing order did not match item order. Training recurrent neural networks to perform an analogous task, we also show the generation of theta oscillations, theta phase-dependent firing related to item position and, again, no match between firing and item order. Rather, our results suggest a mechanistic link between phase order, stimulus timing and oscillation frequency. In both biological and artificial neural networks, we provide evidence supporting the role of phase of firing in working-memory processing.

DOI: 10.1038/s41593-025-01893-7

Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41593-025-01893-7