Ergenzinger E R, Glasier M M, Hahm J O, Pons T P
Department of Neurosurgery, Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, North Carolina 27127, USA.
Nat Neurosci. 1998 Jul;1(3):226-9. doi: 10.1038/673.
The influence of cortical feedback on receptive field organization in the thalamus was assessed in the primate somatosensory system. Chronic and acute suppression of neuronal activity in primary somatosensory cortex resulted in a striking enlargement of receptive fields in the ventroposterior thalamus. This finding demonstrates a dramatic 'top-down' influence of cortex on receptive field size in the somatosensory thalamus. In addition, this result has important implications for studies of adult neuronal plasticity because it indicates that changes in 'higher-order' areas of the brain can trigger extensive changes in the receptive field characteristics of neurons located earlier in the processing pathway.
在灵长类动物体感系统中，评估了皮质反馈对丘脑感受野组织的影响。对初级体感皮层神经元活动进行慢性和急性抑制，导致腹后丘脑的感受野显著扩大。这一发现表明，皮层对体感丘脑感受野大小具有显著的“自上而下”影响。此外，这一结果对成人神经元可塑性的研究具有重要意义，因为它表明大脑“高阶”区域的变化可引发位于处理通路较早阶段的神经元感受野特征发生广泛变化。
