An Amygdala to Ventrolateral Prefrontal Cortex Projection Implicated in Emotional Recognition

建议书摘要-摘要 情绪表达是一种进化上保守的交流形式，能够识别一个 表情或声音的情绪是一种基本的社会功能。情绪认知障碍是一种 在许多精神疾病中都有常见发现，但对促进 这种行为。与中性的面孔相比，观看表情丰富的面孔(例如悲伤、愤怒或快乐的面孔)更吸引人 杏仁核和腹外侧额叶皮质(VLPFC)。尽管杏仁核含有神经元， 选择性地对特定的表达做出反应，这些神经元的整体活动不会将表达归类为 离散类别。这表明杏仁核发出信号表示特定特征的突出，但事实并非如此。 对这些表达式进行分类的站点。在人类中，VLPFC在以下情况下尤其活跃 将面部表情或匹配的表情与描述性词语进行比较。在非人类灵长类动物中，神经元 在VLPFC中，他们对面孔和声音非常敏感。因此，VLFPC可能是人口 活动对表情进行分类，但这还有待系统地测试。 我的初步数据表明，VLPFC神经元对表达和直接投射具有选择性反应 从杏仁核到VLPFC，在猕猴体内。在这些发现的基础上，这项提案试图将 解剖追踪、同步双部位多电极神经生理学和自然主义视听 测试杏仁核传递关于显著感觉的信息的假设的表情 直接到VLPFC的情感表达特征，其中人口活动隔离 将表情归入相关的情感类别。使用带有逆行示踪剂的猕猴组织 放置在对人脸和发声高度反应的VLPFC站点，我将定位这一来源 在杏仁核内投射，并描述其在补充注射中终止的特征(目标1)。同时，我 将多通道电极植入杏仁核和VLFPC，以同时记录神经元整体 当猕猴观看自然主义的、社会情感表达的电影时，如面部手势和 相关发声(目标2)。通过分析驱动与表达相关的反应的感觉模式， 分析这些神经元的群体活动，并比较它们的反应潜伏期 杏仁核和VLPFC，我将深入了解这两个区域之间发生的神经元处理 促进情绪识别。 此外，学习对社交回路进行解剖学和电生理学研究 行为将作为我打算成为精神病学翻译研究员的职业生涯的基础。

PROPOSAL SUMMARY – ABSTRACT Emotional expressions are an evolutionarily conserved form of communication and being able to recognize an emotion from a face or voice is a fundamental social function. Disturbances in emotional recognition are a common finding in many psychiatric diseases, but little is understood about the circuit processes that facilitate this behavior. Compared to neutral faces, viewing expressive faces (e.g. sad, angry, or happy faces) engages the amygdala and ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (VLPFC). Although the amygdala contains neurons that selectively respond to specific expressions, the overall activity of these neurons does not sort expressions into discrete categories. This suggests that the amygdala signals the salience of specific features but that it is not the site where categorization of these expressions occurs. In humans, the VLPFC is especially active when comparing facial expressions or matching expressions with descriptive words. In non-human primates, neurons in the VLPFC are highly responsive to faces and voices. Thus, the VLFPC may be a point where population activity categorizes expressions, but this has yet to be systematically tested. My preliminary data identifies VLPFC neurons with selective responses for expressions and a direct projection from the amygdala to the VLPFC, in the macaque. Building on these findings, this proposal seeks to combine anatomical tract-tracing, simultaneous dual-site multielectrode neurophysiology, and naturalistic, audiovisual expressions to test the hypothesis that the amygdala transmits information about the salient sensory features of emotional expressions directly to the VLPFC, where population activity segregates expressions into associated emotional categories. Using tissue from macaques with retrograde tracers placed at VLPFC sites that were highly responsive to faces and vocalizations, I will localize the origin of this projection in the amygdala and characterize it’s termination in complementary injections (Aim 1). Concurrently, I will implant multichannel electrodes into the amygdala and VLFPC to simultaneously record neuronal ensemble activity while macaques view movies of naturalistic, socio-emotional expressions i.e. facial gestures and associated vocalizations (Aim 2). By analyzing the sensory modalities that drive expression related responses, analyzing the population activity of these neurons, and comparing their response latencies between the amygdala and VLPFC, I will gain insight into the neuronal processing that occurs between these two regions to facilitate emotional recognition. In addition, learning to conduct anatomical and electrophysiological investigations into circuits for social behavior will serve as foundation for my intended a career as a translational researcher in psychiatry.