Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, Tübingen, Germany.
Curr Opin Neurobiol. 2010 Jun;20(3):296-305.
Although we know enormous amounts of detailed information about the neurons that make up the cortex, placing this information back into the context of the behaving animal is a serious challenge. The functional cell assembly hypothesis first described by Hebb (The Organization of Behavior; a Neuropsychological Theory. New York: Wiley; 1949) aimed to provide a mechanistic explanation of how groups of neurons, acting together, form a percept. The vast number of neurons potentially involved make testing this hypothesis exceedingly difficult as neither the number nor locations of assembly members are known. Although increasing the number of neurons from which simultaneous recordings are made is of benefit, providing evidence for or against a hypothesis like Hebb's requires more than this. In this review, we aim to outline some recent technical advances, which may light the way in the chase for the functional cell assembly.
尽管我们已经对构成大脑皮层的神经元有了大量详细的了解，但要将这些信息还原到行为动物的背景中仍然是一个巨大的挑战。赫布（The Organization of Behavior；a Neuropsychological Theory. New York: Wiley；1949）首次提出的功能细胞组装假说旨在提供一种机制解释，说明一组神经元如何协同作用形成感知。由于不知道组装成员的数量和位置，因此涉及的神经元数量众多，使得对这一假说进行测试变得极其困难。虽然增加同时进行记录的神经元数量会有所帮助，但要提供支持或反对赫布这样的假说的证据，仅靠这一点是不够的。在这篇综述中，我们旨在概述一些最近的技术进展，这些进展可能为追寻功能细胞组装提供一些启示。
