Laboratory of Neurobiology and Cognition, CNRS-Université de Provence, Marseille, France.
Behav Brain Res. 2010 Jun 19;209(2):267-73. doi: 10.1016/j.bbr.2010.02.004. Epub 2010 Feb 6.
The rat medial prefrontal cortex has been suggested to be involved in executive functions and, more specifically, in working memory and response selection. Here, we looked for prefrontal neural correlates as rats performed a modified radial arm maze task that taxed such functions. Rats had to learn the position of four rewarded arms among eight, and visit each rewarded arm only once, thus avoiding repeated visits. In addition, rats were left on the maze after the four successful visits to baited arms until they had visited all the arms twice. Prefrontal neural activity was examined during choice periods, i.e. 2s before the rat entered the arms. We found that a substantial proportion of recorded medial prefrontal neurons were selectively activated before either the first or second visit to the arms irrespective of their reward status, thereby tagging already visited arms. These behavioral correlates show that, within the rodent medial prefrontal cortex, neuronal populations demonstrate behavioral correlates suggestive of its role in guiding prospective search behavior and thus executive functions.
内侧前额叶皮层在执行功能中起作用，特别是在工作记忆和反应选择中起作用。在这里，我们观察了大鼠在执行改良的放射状臂迷宫任务时的前额叶神经相关性，该任务测试了这些功能。大鼠必须在八个臂中学习四个奖励臂的位置，并仅访问每个奖励臂一次，从而避免重复访问。此外，大鼠在成功访问四个诱饵臂后留在迷宫中，直到它们两次访问所有臂。在选择期间（即大鼠进入臂之前的 2 秒）检查前额叶神经活动。我们发现，记录的内侧前额叶神经元中有相当大的比例在第一次或第二次访问臂之前被选择性激活，而与它们的奖励状态无关，从而标记了已经访问过的臂。这些行为相关性表明，在啮齿动物内侧前额叶皮层中，神经元群体表现出与指导预期搜索行为和执行功能相关的行为相关性。
