Brain Science Institute, Korea Institute of Science and Technology, Seoul 136-791, Korea.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2012 Sep 18;109(38):15497-501. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1213903109. Epub 2012 Sep 4.
Major cognitive and emotional faculties are dominantly lateralized in the human cerebral cortex. The mechanism of this lateralization has remained elusive owing to the inaccessibility of human brains to many experimental manipulations. In this study we demonstrate the hemispheric lateralization of observational fear learning in mice. Using unilateral inactivation as well as electrical stimulation of the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), we show that observational fear learning is controlled by the right but not the left ACC. In contrast to the cortex, inactivation of either left or right thalamic nuclei, both of which are in reciprocal connection to ACC, induced similar impairment of this behavior. The data suggest that lateralization of negative emotions is an evolutionarily conserved trait and mainly involves cortical operations. Lateralization of the observational fear learning behavior in a rodent model will allow detailed analysis of cortical asymmetry in cognitive functions.
主要的认知和情感能力在人类大脑皮层中主要偏向于一侧。由于人类大脑无法进行许多实验操作，因此这种偏侧化的机制仍然难以捉摸。在这项研究中，我们证明了小鼠观察性恐惧学习的半球偏侧化。通过单侧失活以及对前扣带皮层（ACC）的电刺激，我们表明观察性恐惧学习受右侧而不是左侧 ACC 的控制。与皮层不同，失活任一半球的丘脑核，它们都与 ACC 呈相互连接，都会导致这种行为出现类似的损伤。这些数据表明，负性情绪的偏侧化是一种进化上保守的特征，主要涉及皮质操作。在啮齿动物模型中观察性恐惧学习行为的偏侧化将允许对认知功能的皮质不对称性进行详细分析。
