Neural activity in the primate prefrontal cortex during associative learning
Neural activity in the primate prefrontal cortex during associative learning
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DOI：
10.1016/s0896-6273(00)80658-3
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发表时间：
1998-12-01
期刊：
影响因子：
16.2
通讯作者：
Miller, EK
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Asaad, WF;Rainer, G;Miller, EK
灵长类动物具有快速形成和重新排列任意联想的非凡能力，这与前额叶皮层有关。研究人员对两只猴子的这种能力进行了研究，研究中使用了一项任务，要求它们学习对特定的线索做出特定的扫视，然后反复逆转这些反应。我们发现，单个PF神经元的活动既代表了线索，也代表了相关的反应，也许为它们的关联提供了神经基质。此外，在学习过程中，神经活动在每次连续的试验中逐渐提前传达动物即将发生的反应的方向。然而，反应前的最后活动水平不受学习的影响。这些结果表明PF皮层在学习任意线索反应关联中的作用，这是一种对复杂行为至关重要的能力。
The prefrontal (PF) cortex has been implicated in the remarkable ability of primates to form and rearrange arbitrary associations rapidly. This ability was studied in two monkeys, using a task that required them to learn to make specific saccades in response to particular cues and then repeatedly reverse these responses. We found that the activity of individual PF neurons represented both the cues and the associated responses, perhaps providing a neural substrate for their association. Furthermore, during learning, neural activity conveyed the direction of the animals' impending responses progressively earlier within each successive trial. The final level of activity just before the response, however, was unaffected by learning. These results suggest a role for the PF cortex in learning arbitrary cue-response associations, an ability critical for complex behavior.