Center for Molecular and Behavioral Neuroscience, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, 197 University Avenue, Newark, NJ 07102, USA.
Neuron. 2011 Oct 6;72(1):153-65. doi: 10.1016/j.neuron.2011.08.018.
Network oscillations support transient communication across brain structures. We show here, in rats, that task-related neuronal activity in the medial prefrontal cortex (PFC), the hippocampus, and the ventral tegmental area (VTA), regions critical for working memory, is coordinated by a 4 Hz oscillation. A prominent increase of power and coherence of the 4 Hz oscillation in the PFC and the VTA and its phase modulation of gamma power in both structures was present in the working memory part of the task. Subsets of both PFC and hippocampal neurons predicted the turn choices of the rat. The goal-predicting PFC pyramidal neurons were more strongly phase locked to both 4 Hz and hippocampal theta oscillations than nonpredicting cells. The 4 Hz and theta oscillations were phase coupled and jointly modulated both gamma waves and neuronal spikes in the PFC, the VTA, and the hippocampus. Thus, multiplexed timing mechanisms in the PFC-VTA-hippocampus axis may support processing of information, including working memory.
网络振荡支持大脑结构之间的瞬时通讯。我们在这里在大鼠中表明,与工作记忆相关的内侧前额叶皮层(PFC)、海马体和腹侧被盖区(VTA)中的神经元活动是由 4 Hz 振荡协调的。在工作记忆部分的任务中,PFC 和 VTA 中的 4 Hz 振荡的功率和相干性明显增加,并且在这两个结构中伽马功率的相位调制。PFC 和海马体神经元的子集预测了大鼠的转弯选择。与非预测细胞相比,预测目标的 PFC 锥体神经元对 4 Hz 和海马 theta 振荡的相位锁定更强。4 Hz 和 theta 振荡相位耦合,并共同调节 PFC、VTA 和海马体中的伽马波和神经元尖峰。因此,PFC-VTA-海马体轴中的复用定时机制可能支持信息处理,包括工作记忆。