Helfrich Randolph F, Knight Robert T
Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, United States; Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway.
Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, United States; Department of Psychology, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, United States.
Handb Clin Neurol. 2019;163:35-59. doi: 10.1016/B978-0-12-804281-6.00003-3.
The prefrontal cortex (PFC) provides the structural basis for complex rule-guided goal-directed behavior. However, the functional mechanisms that underlie cognitive control and flexibility are not as well understood. Over the last decade, novel electrophysiological methods and analysis techniques have begun to elucidate the neural mechanisms underlying higher cognitive functions. Here we review how electrophysiology and, in particular, intracranial recordings in humans and primates enable imaging of cognitive processing with an unprecedented spatiotemporal resolution. Convergent evidence from multiple species and across several spatial scales suggests that cell assemblies and transient synchronized network activity constitute the functional units of PFC implementation of organized behavior. These observations indicate that the functional architecture of cognition is inherently rhythmic and not static. We highlight that prefrontal neurons exhibit a mixed selectivity to various task-relevant aspects and code information in a time-varying dynamic population code and not at the level of individual neurons or in stable coding schemes. We argue that network neuroscience and network neurology are emergent paradigms to understand complex behavior and mental diseases.
前额叶皮层（PFC）为复杂的规则引导的目标导向行为提供了结构基础。然而，认知控制和灵活性背后的功能机制尚未得到充分理解。在过去十年中，新的电生理方法和分析技术已开始阐明高级认知功能背后的神经机制。在此，我们回顾电生理学，特别是人类和灵长类动物的颅内记录如何以前所未有的时空分辨率对认知加工进行成像。来自多个物种和多个空间尺度的趋同证据表明，细胞集合和瞬态同步网络活动构成了PFC执行有组织行为的功能单元。这些观察结果表明，认知的功能架构本质上是有节奏的，而非静态的。我们强调，前额叶神经元对各种与任务相关的方面表现出混合选择性，并以随时间变化的动态群体编码而非单个神经元水平或稳定编码方案来编码信息。我们认为，网络神经科学和网络神经学是理解复杂行为和精神疾病的新兴范式。
