Department of Engineering, University of Leicester, UK.
Nat Rev Neurosci. 2012 Jul 4;13(8):587-97. doi: 10.1038/nrn3251.
Intracranial recordings in subjects suffering from intractable epilepsy - made during their evaluation for an eventual surgical removal of the epileptic focus - have allowed the extraordinary opportunity to study the firing of multiple single neurons in awake and behaving human subjects. These studies have shown that neurons in the human medial temporal lobe respond in a remarkably selective and abstract manner to particular persons or objects, such as Jennifer Aniston, Luke Skywalker or the Tower of Pisa. These neurons have been named 'Jennifer Aniston neurons' or, more recently, 'concept cells'. I argue that the sparse, explicit and abstract representation of these neurons is crucial for memory functions, such as the creation of associations and the transition between related concepts that leads to episodic memories and the flow of consciousness.
颅内记录在患有难治性癫痫的患者中进行，这些患者正在接受评估，以确定是否可以通过手术切除癫痫病灶。这些记录提供了一个极好的机会，可以研究清醒和行为正常的人类受试者中多个单个神经元的放电情况。这些研究表明，人类内侧颞叶中的神经元以一种非常选择性和抽象的方式对特定的人或物做出反应，例如詹妮弗·安妮斯顿、卢克·天行者或比萨斜塔。这些神经元被命名为“詹妮弗·安妮斯顿神经元”，或者最近被称为“概念细胞”。我认为，这些神经元的稀疏、明确和抽象的表示对于记忆功能至关重要，例如联想的创建以及相关概念之间的转换，这导致了情景记忆和意识流。
