Pang Rich, Lansdell Benjamin J, Fairhall Adrienne L
Neuroscience Graduate Program, University of Washington, Box 357270, T-471 Health Sciences Ctr, Seattle, WA 98195, USA.
Department of Applied Mathematics, University of Washington, Lewis Hall #202, Box 353925, Seattle, WA 98195, USA.
Curr Biol. 2016 Jul 25;26(14):R656-60. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2016.05.029.
The nervous system extracts information from its environment and distributes and processes that information to inform and drive behaviour. In this task, the nervous system faces a type of data analysis problem, for, while a visual scene may be overflowing with information, reaching for the television remote before us requires extraction of only a relatively small fraction of that information. We could care about an almost infinite number of visual stimulus patterns, but we don't: we distinguish two actors' faces with ease but two different images of television static with significant difficulty. Equally, we could respond with an almost infinite number of movements, but we don't: the motions executed to pick up the remote are highly stereotyped and related to many other grasping motions. If we were to look at what was going on inside the brain during this task, we would find populations of neurons whose electrical activity was highly structured and correlated with the images on the screen and the action of localizing and picking up the remote.
神经系统从其所处环境中提取信息，并对这些信息进行分配和处理，以指导和驱动行为。在这项任务中，神经系统面临着一种数据分析问题，因为尽管视觉场景可能充满了信息，但要伸手去拿我们面前的电视遥控器，只需要提取其中相对较少的一部分信息。我们可能关心几乎无穷无尽的视觉刺激模式，但实际上并非如此：我们能轻松区分两个演员的面孔，却很难区分电视上两种不同的静电图像。同样，我们可以做出几乎无穷无尽的动作，但我们并没有：拿起遥控器所执行的动作是高度刻板的，并且与许多其他抓握动作相关。如果我们观察在执行这项任务时大脑内部的情况，就会发现大量神经元，它们的电活动具有高度的结构性，并且与屏幕上的图像以及定位和拿起遥控器的动作相关。
