Ahissar E, Vaadia E, Ahissar M, Bergman H, Arieli A, Abeles M
Department of Physiology, Hebrew University, Hadassah Medical School, Jerusalem, Israel.
Science. 1992 Sep 4;257(5075):1412-5. doi: 10.1126/science.1529342.
It has not been possible to analyze the cellular mechanisms underlying learning in behaving mammals because of the difficulties in recording intracellularly from awake animals. Therefore, in the present study of neuronal plasticity in behaving monkeys, the net effect of a single neuron on another neuron (the "functional connection") was evaluated by cross-correlating the times of firing of the two neurons. When two neurons were induced to fire together within a short time window, the functional connection between them was potentiated, and when simultaneous firing was prevented, the connection was depressed. These modifications were strongly dependent on the behavioral context of the stimuli that induced them. The results indicate that changes in the temporal contingency between neurons are often necessary, but not sufficient, for cortical plasticity in the adult monkey: behavioral relevance is required.
由于难以在清醒动物体内进行细胞内记录，因此无法分析行为哺乳动物学习背后的细胞机制。因此，在目前关于行为猴子神经元可塑性的研究中，通过对两个神经元的放电时间进行互相关分析，评估了单个神经元对另一个神经元的净效应（“功能连接”）。当两个神经元在短时间窗口内被诱导一起放电时，它们之间的功能连接会增强；当阻止同时放电时，连接会减弱。这些改变强烈依赖于诱导它们的刺激的行为背景。结果表明，神经元之间时间关联性的变化对于成年猴子的皮质可塑性通常是必要的，但并不充分：还需要行为相关性。
