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猕猴顶岛前庭皮层对前庭刺激方向选择的聚类性研究

邵孟孟, 张莹莹, 陈爱华^*

华东师范大学生命科学学院脑功能基因组学教育部重点实验室，上海 200062

摘要

许多皮层区都存在对前庭刺激具有方向选择性的神经元，其中猕猴顶内沟腹侧区(ventral intraparietal area, VIP)以及背侧内上颞区(dorsal subdivision of the medial superior temporal area, MSTd)神经元根据其对前庭信号的方向选择性而呈聚集分布。那么这种聚类特性源自何处？已有研究表明，VIP和MSTd的前庭输入很可能来自较早期处理前庭信号的顶岛前庭皮层(parieto-insular vestibular cortex, PIVC)。由此，我们推测PIVC也存在对前庭信息处理的聚类结构。在本研究中，为了检测PIVC神经元前庭反应特性的聚类性，我们将同一电极上记录到的单个神经元(single unit, SU)对前庭刺激的方向调谐反应与电极尖端周围采集到的多个神经元群(multiunit, MU)的前庭调谐反应进行比较，结果显示，当MU具有显著方向调谐时，其偏好方向通常与同一电极上记录到的SU偏好方向非常接近。本研究结果证实PIVC中相邻神经元对直线和/或旋转的前庭运动刺激的方向偏好具有一定的聚类性。

关键词： 顶岛前庭皮层; 前庭信号; 方向选择性; 单细胞活动; 多细胞群体活动

分类号：Q424

Clustering of vestibular direction-selective neurons in macaque parieto-insular vestibular cortex

SHAO Meng-Meng, ZHANG Ying-Ying, CHEN Ai-Hua^*

Key Laboratory of Brain Functional Genomics (Ministry of Education), School of Life Sciences, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200062, China

Abstract

Neurons with direction-selectivity for vestibular stimuli are found in a number of cortical areas, and neurons in the ventral intraparietal area (VIP) and the dorsal subdivision of the medial superior temporal area (MSTd) of the macaque brain are clustered according to their direction preferences for vestibular signals. This raises the question where the clustering inherits from? Previous work has shown that VIP and MSTd most probably receive vestibular input from the parieto-insular vestibular cortex (PIVC), which processes vestibular signals at the earlier stage. Thus, PIVC is also supposed to show a clustered organization similar to that seen in VIP and MSTd. The present study was aimed to examine clustering properties of vestibular response in PIVC area. To address this issue, we compared the tuning of isolated single unit (SU) with the undifferentiated multiunit (MU) activity of several neighboring neurons recorded from the same microelectrode. When directional tuning was observed in MU activity, the direction preference generally agreed closely with that of a simultaneously recorded SU. These results suggest that PIVC neurons are indeed clustered according to preferred direction for both translational and rotational vestibular stimuli.

Key words: parieto-insular vestibular cortex; vestibular signals; direction-selectivity; single unit; multiunit

收稿日期：2018-01-19　　录用日期：2018-05-28

通讯作者：陈爱华　　E-mail: ahchen@brain.ecnu.edu.cn

DOI: 10.13294/j.aps.2018.0043

引用本文：

邵孟孟, 张莹莹, 陈爱华. 猕猴顶岛前庭皮层对前庭刺激方向选择的聚类性研究[J]. 生理学报 2018; 70 (4): 369-383.

SHAO Meng-Meng, ZHANG Ying-Ying, CHEN Ai-Hua. Clustering of vestibular direction-selective neurons in macaque parieto-insular vestibular cortex. Acta Physiol Sin 2018; 70 (4): 369-383 (in Chinese with English abstract).