Pittsburgh Veterans Affairs Medical Center and Department of Neurobiology, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, PA 15261, USA.
J Neurosci. 2012 May 9;32(19):6726-31. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0406-12.2012.
We used retrograde transneuronal transport of rabies virus from the rat kidney to identify the areas of the cerebral cortex that are potential sources of central commands for the neural regulation of this organ. Our results indicate that multiple motor and nonmotor areas of the cerebral cortex contain output neurons that indirectly influence kidney function. These cortical areas include the primary motor cortex (M1), the rostromedial motor area (M2), the primary somatosensory cortex, the insula and other regions surrounding the rhinal fissure, and the medial prefrontal cortex. The vast majority of the output neurons from the cerebral cortex were located in two cortical areas, M1 (68%) and M2 (15%). If the visceromotor functions of M1 and M2 reflect their skeletomotor functions, then the output to the kidney from each cortical area could make a unique contribution to autonomic control. The output from M1 could add precision and organ-specific regulation to descending visceromotor commands, whereas the output from M2 could add anticipatory processing which is essential for allostatic regulation. We also found that the output from M1 and M2 to the kidney originates predominantly from the trunk representations of these two cortical areas. Thus, a map of visceromotor representation appears to be embedded within the classic somatotopic map of skeletomotor representation.
我们利用逆行性狂犬病毒跨神经元传递，从大鼠肾脏鉴定出大脑皮层的潜在区域，这些区域可能是肾脏神经调节的中枢命令源。我们的研究结果表明，大脑皮层的多个运动和非运动区包含输出神经元，这些神经元间接影响肾脏功能。这些皮层区包括初级运动皮层（M1）、前内侧运动区（M2）、初级体感皮层、脑岛以及围绕脑回的其他区域，以及内侧前额叶皮层。来自大脑皮层的绝大多数输出神经元位于两个皮层区，M1（68%）和 M2（15%）。如果 M1 和 M2 的内脏运动功能反映了它们的躯体运动功能，那么来自每个皮层区的肾脏输出可能对自主控制做出独特的贡献。M1 的输出可以为下行内脏运动指令增加精度和器官特异性调节，而 M2 的输出可以增加对所有稳态调节至关重要的预期处理。我们还发现，M1 和 M2 向肾脏的输出主要来自这两个皮层区的躯干代表区。因此，内脏运动代表图似乎嵌入在经典的躯体运动代表图中。
