Lewis D A, Gonzalez-Burgos G
Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA.
Brain Res Bull. 2000 Jul 15;52(5):309-17. doi: 10.1016/s0361-9230(99)00243-9.
Working memory, a fundamental cognitive process that is disturbed in schizophrenia, appears to depend upon the sustained activity of specific populations of neurons in the prefrontal cortex. Understanding the neural mechanism(s) that may contribute to the sustained activity of these neurons represents a critical step in predicting the types of alterations in prefrontal circuitry that may be present in schizophrenia, and in determining how such alterations may contribute to the cognitive symptoms of this disorder. This article reviews recent findings which suggest that intrinsic horizontal connections among pyramidal neurons in layer 3 of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex may provide a critical anatomical substrate for working memory processes, and that alterations in these connections may account for the observations of disturbed working memory, adolescence-related onset of clinical features, and certain pathological changes in the prefrontal cortex of subjects with schizophrenia.
工作记忆是一种在精神分裂症中会受到干扰的基本认知过程，它似乎依赖于前额叶皮质中特定神经元群体的持续活动。了解可能促成这些神经元持续活动的神经机制，是预测精神分裂症患者前额叶回路中可能存在的改变类型，以及确定这些改变如何导致该疾病认知症状的关键一步。本文综述了近期的研究发现，这些发现表明，背外侧前额叶皮质第3层锥体细胞之间的内在水平连接可能为工作记忆过程提供关键的解剖学基础，并且这些连接的改变可能解释了精神分裂症患者工作记忆受扰、临床特征与青春期相关的发病情况以及前额叶皮质某些病理变化的观察结果。
