An Amygdala to Ventrolateral Prefrontal Cortex Projection Implicated in Emotional Recognition

提案摘要 – 摘要 情绪表达是一种进化上保守的交流形式，能够识别 面部或声音的情感是一项基本的社会功能。情绪识别障碍是 这种现象在许多精神疾病中很常见，但人们对促进这种疾病的回路过程知之甚少。 这种行为。与中性面孔相比，观看富有表情的面孔（例如悲伤、愤怒或快乐的面孔）会吸引人 杏仁核和腹外侧前额皮质（VLPFC）。尽管杏仁核含有神经元 选择性地响应特定的表达，这些神经元的整体活动不会将表达分类 离散类别。这表明杏仁核发出特定特征的显着性信号，但它并不是 对这些表达进行分类的站点。在人类中，VLPFC 在以下情况下特别活跃： 比较面部表情或将表情与描述性词语进行匹配。在非人类灵长类动物中，神经元 VLPFC 中的神经元对面孔和声音高度敏感。因此，VLFPC 可能是人口 活动对表达进行分类，但这还有待系统测试。 我的初步数据确定了 VLPFC 神经元对表达和直接投射具有选择性反应 在猕猴中，从杏仁核到 VLPFC。基于这些发现，该提案力求将 解剖束追踪、同步双位点多电极神经生理学以及自然视听 表达式来检验杏仁核传递有关显着感觉的信息的假设 情绪表达的特征直接传递到 VLPFC，其中群体活动被隔离 表达到相关的情感类别。使用猕猴组织和逆行示踪剂 放置在对面部和发声高度敏感的 VLPFC 站点，我将定位其起源 杏仁核中的投影并表征其在补充注射中的终止（目标 1）。同时，我 将把多通道电极植入杏仁核和 VLFPC，以同时记录神经元集合 猕猴观看自然主义、社会情感表达的电影时的活动，即面部表情和 相关的发声（目标 2）。通过分析驱动表达相关反应的感觉方式， 分析这些神经元的群体活动，并比较它们之间的反应延迟 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 促进情感识别。 此外，学习对社会回路进行解剖学和电生理学研究 我的行为将成为我作为精神病学转化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.