Yokochi Hiroko, Tanaka Michio, Kumashiro Mari, Iriki Atsushi
Section of Cognitive Neurobiology, Department of Maxillofacial Biology, Tokyo Medical and Dental University, Tokyo 113-8549, Japan.
Somatosens Mot Res. 2003;20(2):115-25. doi: 10.1080/0899022031000105145.
Neuronal activities of the anterior part of the inferior parietal lobule (area 7b or PF) were investigated in five awake Japanese monkeys. There were neurons which had specific combinations of receptive field (RF) locations, most typically in both the face and hand; we refer to the seas Face-Hand neurons. The most interesting property of the Face-Hand neurons is that some of these neurons responded to specific behavior executed with synergism between the face (especially the mouth) and hand movements; namely, face-hand coordinated behavior (e.g., eating behavior). We call these cells Face-Hand coordination neurons (52% of all the Face-Hand neurons). These neurons discharged more strongly when the animal executed face-hand coordinated behavior, especially eating behavior, than when somatosensory stimuli were given to RFs passively, or when face movements and hand movements were executed separately. We thus propose that the neuronal activities of area 7b are related to the representation of face-hand coordination.
在五只清醒的日本猕猴身上，研究了顶下小叶前部（7b区或PF区）的神经元活动。存在一些具有特定感受野（RF）位置组合的神经元，最典型的是在面部和手部；我们将其称为面-手神经元。面-手神经元最有趣的特性是，其中一些神经元会对面部（尤其是嘴巴）和手部运动协同执行的特定行为做出反应；即面-手协调行为（例如进食行为）。我们将这些细胞称为面-手协调神经元（占所有面-手神经元的52%）。当动物执行面-手协调行为，尤其是进食行为时，这些神经元的放电比被动给予RF体感刺激时，或面部运动和手部运动分别执行时更强。因此，我们提出7b区的神经元活动与面-手协调的表征有关。
