Pathway-specific reorganization of projection neurons in somatosensory cortex during learning
Pathway-specific reorganization of projection neurons in somatosensory cortex during learning
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DOI：
10.1038/nn.4046
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发表时间：
2015-08-01
影响因子：
25
通讯作者：
Helmchen, Fritjof
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Chen, Jerry L.;Margolis, David J.;Helmchen, Fritjof
在哺乳动物的大脑中，感觉皮层在任务学习期间表现出可塑性，但这如何改变连接的皮质区域之间的信息传输仍不清楚。我们发现，小鼠须初级体感皮质(S1)皮质神经元的不同亚群经历了反映习得行为的功能变化。在学习纹理辨别任务的小鼠中，我们对投射到次级躯体感觉(S2)或初级运动(M1)皮质的S1神经元的活动进行了长期成像。小鼠采用了一种主动的摇动策略，增强了与纹理相关的胡须运动学，与任务绩效相关。M1投射神经元可靠地编码基本运动学特征，并招募了额外的触摸相关神经元子集，这些子集持续到训练结束。投射S2的触觉神经元的数量保持不变，但通过重组提高了对试验类型的辨别能力，同时发展了能够辨别动物决定的活动模式。我们认为，S1中与学习相关的变化以一种特定路径的方式增强感觉表征，为下游区域提供行为的任务相关信息。
In the mammalian brain, sensory cortices exhibit plasticity during task learning, but how this alters information transferred between connected cortical areas remains unknown. We found that divergent subpopulations of cortico-cortical neurons in mouse whisker primary somatosensory cortex (S1) undergo functional changes reflecting learned behavior. We chronically imaged activity of S1 neurons projecting to secondary somatosensory (S2) or primary motor (M1) cortex in mice learning a texture discrimination task. Mice adopted an active whisking strategy that enhanced texture-related whisker kinematics, correlating with task performance. M1-projecting neurons reliably encoded basic kinematics features, and an additional subset of touch-related neurons was recruited that persisted past training. The number of S2-projecting touch neurons remained constant, but improved their discrimination of trial types through reorganization while developing activity patterns capable of discriminating the animal's decision. We propose that learning-related changes in S1 enhance sensory representations in a pathway-specific manner, providing downstream areas with task-relevant information for behavior.