Neural firing in ventrolateral thalamic nucleus during conditioned vocal behavior in cats
Neural firing in ventrolateral thalamic nucleus during conditioned vocal behavior in cats
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DOI：
10.1007/pl00005719
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发表时间：
1997-07-01
影响因子：
2
通讯作者：
Farley, GR
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Farley, GR
哺乳动物的腹侧丘脑（VL）是一个很好的位置显示发声相关的神经活动，如果有一般或经典的运动系统参与发声。它接受来自基底节区和小脑的输入，并与运动皮质区形成相互连接。本研究考察了猫在工具条件发声过程中下丘脑神经元的活动。我们样本中的单位表现出不规则的自发放电，这可以通过缓慢发生的发声任务表现强度波动来调节。两种主要类型的行为事件与神经放电率的变化有关。首先是食物奖励的摄入。超过一半的记录显示舔舐时的阶段性爆发模式；同样数量的人在准备这一阶段活动时的射击增加。第二个行为事件调节单位反应是发声。大约60%的录音显示，活动的变化与发声时间有关。这些反应几乎总是兴奋的，并且经常涉及在发声开始之前的放电变化。神经元之间的放电模式没有空间组织差异。我们的研究结果表明，下丘脑很可能参与调节声音行为，尽管它的功能作用仍然是一个猜测的对象。结果与先前的发声相关活动和VL丘脑活动的研究进行了比较。
The ventrolateral (VL) thalamus in mammals is a site well-situated to show vocalization-related neural activity if there is general or classical motor system involvement in vocal production. It receives input from both the basal ganglia and cerebellum, and forms reciprocal connections with motor cortical areas. The current study examined the activity in cat VL thalamus neurons during instrumentally conditioned vocalization. Units in our sample showed irregular spontaneous firing which could be modulated by slowly occurring fluctuations in intensity of vocalization task performance. Two main types of behavioral events were associated with changes in neural firing rate. The first of these was the ingestion of food reward. More than half of all recordings showed phasic bursting patterns during licking; a similar number had increases in firing preparatory to this phasic activity. The second behavioral event modulating unit responses was vocalization. Approximately 60% of recordings showed activity changes time-locked to vocalization. These responses were almost always excitatory, and often involved changes in firing that preceded vocalization onset. No spatial organization of differences in firing pattern between neurons could be distinguished. Our results suggest that VL thalamus may well be involved in mediating vocal behavior, although its functional role remains an object of speculation. Results are compared with previous studies of vocalization-related activity and of VL thalamus activity.