Neurobiology Institute, National Autonomous University of Mexico, Queretaro, Mexico.
NeuroTechnology Center, Columbia University, New York, USA.
Curr Opin Neurobiol. 2020 Oct;64:89-95. doi: 10.1016/j.conb.2020.03.014. Epub 2020 Apr 10.
Neuronal ensembles, i.e. coactive groups of neurons, have been long postulated to be functional building blocks of cortical circuits and units of the neural code. Calcium imaging of neuronal populations has demonstrated the widespread existence of spontaneous and sensory-evoked ensembles in cortical circuits in vivo. The development of two-photon optical techniques to simultaneously record and activate neurons with single cell resolution ("piano" experiments) has revealed the existence of pattern completion neurons, which can trigger an entire ensemble, and demonstrated a causal relation between ensembles and behavior. We review recent results controlling visual perception with targeted holographic manipulation of cortical ensembles by stimulating pattern completion neurons. Analyzing population activity as neuronal ensembles and exploiting pattern completion could enable control of brain states in health and disease.
神经元集合，即共同活跃的神经元群，长期以来被认为是皮质回路的功能构建块和神经代码的单元。对神经元群体的钙成像已经证明了在体内皮质回路中广泛存在自发和感觉诱发的集合。双光子光学技术的发展使得以单细胞分辨率同时记录和激活神经元成为可能（“钢琴”实验），揭示了存在模式完成神经元，它可以触发整个集合，并证明了集合与行为之间的因果关系。我们回顾了最近的结果，通过刺激模式完成神经元，利用靶向全息对皮质集合进行操作来控制视觉感知。将群体活动作为神经元集合进行分析并利用模式完成，可以实现在健康和疾病状态下对大脑状态的控制。
