Department of Neurobiology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
Curr Opin Neurobiol. 2011 Oct;21(5):801-7. doi: 10.1016/j.conb.2011.07.004. Epub 2011 Aug 18.
A fundamental but unsolved problem in neuroscience is how connections between neurons might underlie information processing in central circuits. Building wiring diagrams of neural networks may accelerate our understanding of how they compute. But even if we had wiring diagrams, it is critical to know what neurons in a circuit are doing: their physiology. In both the retina and cerebral cortex, a great deal is known about topographic specificity, such as lamination and cell-type specificity of connections. Little, however, is known about connections as they relate to function. Here, we review how advances in functional imaging and electron microscopy have recently allowed the examination of relationships between sensory physiology and synaptic connections in cortical and retinal circuits.
在神经科学中，一个基本但尚未解决的问题是神经元之间的连接如何为中枢回路中的信息处理提供基础。构建神经网络的布线图可能会加速我们对它们如何计算的理解。但即使我们有了布线图，了解电路中的神经元在做什么也至关重要：它们的生理学。在视网膜和大脑皮层中，人们已经了解了很多关于拓扑特异性的知识，例如连接的分层和细胞类型特异性。然而，关于连接与功能的关系，人们知之甚少。在这里，我们回顾了功能成像和电子显微镜技术的最新进展，这些进展如何允许检查皮质和视网膜回路中感觉生理学和突触连接之间的关系。
