Mushiake Hajime, Saito Naohiro, Sakamoto Kazuhiro, Itoyama Yasuto, Tanji Jun
Department of Physiology, Tohoku University School of Medicine, Sendai 980-8575, Japan.
Neuron. 2006 May 18;50(4):631-41. doi: 10.1016/j.neuron.2006.03.045.
To achieve a behavioral goal in a complex environment, we must plan multiple steps of motor behavior. On planning a series of actions, we anticipate future events that will occur as a result of each action and mentally organize the temporal sequence of events. To investigate the involvement of the lateral prefrontal cortex (PFC) in such multistep planning, we examined neuronal activity in the PFC of monkeys performing a maze task that required the planning of stepwise cursor movements to reach a goal. During the preparatory period, PFC neurons reflected each of all forthcoming cursor movements, rather than arm movements. In contrast, in the primary motor cortex, most neuronal activity reflected arm movements but little of cursor movements during the preparatory period, as well as during movement execution. Our data suggest that the PFC is involved primarily in planning multiple future events that occur as a consequence of behavioral actions.
为了在复杂环境中实现行为目标，我们必须规划多个步骤的运动行为。在规划一系列行动时，我们会预测每个行动所导致的未来事件，并在脑海中组织事件的时间顺序。为了研究外侧前额叶皮层（PFC）在这种多步骤规划中的作用，我们检测了执行迷宫任务的猴子PFC中的神经元活动，该任务需要规划逐步的光标移动以达到目标。在准备期，PFC神经元反映了所有即将进行的光标移动中的每一个，而不是手臂运动。相比之下，在初级运动皮层中，大多数神经元活动在准备期以及运动执行期间反映的是手臂运动，而很少反映光标运动。我们的数据表明，PFC主要参与规划行为动作所导致的多个未来事件。
