Representation of time interval entrained by periodic stimuli in the visual thalamus of pigeons.
Representation of time interval entrained by periodic stimuli in the visual thalamus of pigeons.
复制标题
鸽子视觉丘脑周期性刺激所带来的时间间隔的表示
作者：
Yang Y;Wang Q;Wang SR;Wang Y;Xiao Q
动物使用来自先前经历的周期性事件的时间信息来指导它们未来的行为。视网膜和皮层参与了这种行为，但在很大程度上仍然不清楚丘脑如何将视觉信息从视网膜传递到皮层，处理周期性的时间模式。在这里，我们报告的亮度细胞在背外侧核前丘脑（DLA）的鸽子表现出振荡活动的时间模式相同的重复光/暗（LD）刺激的持续时间在秒到分钟的范围内的有节奏的亮度变化。特别地，在LD刺激后，DLA细胞保留了与LD周期的持续时间紧密匹配的间隔的夹带振荡活动。此外，刺激后的DLA细胞的振荡活动持续没有反馈输入的palalalum（相当于哺乳动物皮层）。我们的研究表明，在大脑中的时间间隔的经验依赖性表示可能不限于苍白球/皮层水平，但可能早在丘脑水平发生。
Animals use the temporal information from previously experienced periodic events to instruct their future behaviors. The retina and cortex are involved in such behavior, but it remains largely unknown how the thalamus, transferring visual information from the retina to the cortex, processes the periodic temporal patterns. Here we report that the luminance cells in the nucleus dorsolateralis anterior thalami (DLA) of pigeons exhibited oscillatory activities in a temporal pattern identical to the rhythmic luminance changes of repetitive light/dark (LD) stimuli with durations in the seconds-to-minutes range. Particularly, after LD stimulation, the DLA cells retained the entrained oscillatory activities with an interval closely matching the duration of the LD cycle. Furthermore, the post-stimulus oscillatory activities of the DLA cells were sustained without feedback inputs from the pallium (equivalent to the mammalian cortex). Our study suggests that the experience-dependent representation of time interval in the brain might not be confined to the pallial/cortical level, but may occur as early as at the thalamic level.