Department of Urology, Southwest Hospital, Third Military Medical University, Chongqing, China.
Brain Research Center and State Key Laboratory of Trauma, Burns, and Combined Injury, Third Military Medical University, Chongqing, China.
Nat Neurosci. 2018 Nov;21(11):1541-1550. doi: 10.1038/s41593-018-0256-4. Epub 2018 Oct 25.
Urination (also called micturition) is thought to be regulated by a neural network that is distributed in both subcortical and cortical regions. Previously, urination-related neurons have been identified in subcortical structures such as the pontine micturition center (also known as Barrington's nucleus). However, the origin of the descending cortical pathway and how it interfaces with this subcortical circuit to permit voluntary initiation of urination remain elusive. Here we identified a small cluster of layer 5 neurons in the primary motor cortex whose activities tightly correlate with the onset of urination in freely behaving mice and increase dramatically during territorial marking. Optogenetically activating these neurons elicits contraction of the bladder and initiates urination, through their projections to the pontine micturition center, while silencing or ablating them impairs urination and causes retention of urine. Together these results reveal a novel cortical component upstream of the pontine micturition center that is critically involved in urination.
排尿（也称为小便）被认为是受分布在皮质和皮质下区域的神经网络调节的。以前，已经在皮质下结构中鉴定出与排尿相关的神经元，例如脑桥排尿中枢（也称为巴灵顿核）。然而，下行皮质通路的起源以及它如何与这个皮质下回路接口以允许自愿开始排尿仍然难以捉摸。在这里，我们在初级运动皮层中鉴定出一小群第 5 层神经元，其活动与自由行为的小鼠排尿的开始密切相关，并在领地标记期间显着增加。光遗传激活这些神经元会通过它们投射到脑桥排尿中枢引起膀胱收缩并引发排尿，而沉默或消融它们会损害排尿并导致尿液潴留。这些结果共同揭示了脑桥排尿中枢上游的一个新的皮质成分，该成分在排尿中起着关键作用。
