Computation and Neural Systems, Division of Biology and Biological Engineering, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125
Computation and Neural Systems, Division of Biology and Biological Engineering, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125.
J Neurosci. 2020 Jun 10;40(24):4761-4772. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2897-19.2020. Epub 2020 May 6.
The amygdala plays an important role in many aspects of social cognition and reward learning. Here, we aimed to determine whether human amygdala neurons are involved in the computations necessary to implement learning through observation. We performed single-neuron recordings from the amygdalae of human neurosurgical patients (male and female) while they learned about the value of stimuli through observing the outcomes experienced by another agent interacting with those stimuli. We used a detailed computational modeling approach to describe patients' behavior in the task. We found a significant proportion of amygdala neurons whose activity correlated with both expected rewards for oneself and others, and in tracking outcome values received by oneself or other agents. Additionally, a population decoding analysis suggests the presence of information for both observed and experiential outcomes in the amygdala. Encoding and decoding analyses suggested observational value coding in amygdala neurons occurred in a different subset of neurons than experiential value coding. Collectively, these findings support a key role for the human amygdala in the computations underlying the capacity for learning through observation. Single-neuron studies of the human brain provide a unique window into the computational mechanisms of cognition. In this study, epilepsy patients implanted intracranially with hybrid depth electrodes performed an observational learning (OL) task. We measured single-neuron activity in the amygdala and found a representation for observational rewards as well as observational expected reward values. Additionally, distinct subsets of amygdala neurons represented self-experienced and observational values. This study provides a rare glimpse into the role of human amygdala neurons in social cognition.
杏仁核在许多社会认知和奖励学习方面发挥着重要作用。在这里，我们旨在确定人类杏仁核神经元是否参与实施通过观察进行学习所需的计算。我们对接受神经外科手术的男性和女性患者的杏仁核进行了单细胞记录，同时他们通过观察与这些刺激物相互作用的另一个代理所经历的结果来了解刺激物的价值。我们使用详细的计算建模方法来描述患者在任务中的行为。我们发现相当一部分杏仁核神经元的活动与自身和他人的预期奖励相关，并与自身或其他代理获得的结果价值相关。此外，群体解码分析表明，杏仁核中存在观察和体验结果的信息。编码和解码分析表明，杏仁核神经元中的观察价值编码发生在与体验价值编码不同的神经元亚群中。总之，这些发现支持人类杏仁核在通过观察进行学习的计算中起着关键作用。对人脑的单细胞研究为认知的计算机制提供了一个独特的窗口。在这项研究中，接受颅内植入混合深度电极的癫痫患者执行了观察性学习（OL）任务。我们测量了杏仁核中的单个神经元活动，发现了对观察性奖励的表示，以及对观察性预期奖励值的表示。此外，杏仁核的不同亚群代表了自我体验和观察价值。这项研究罕见地揭示了人类杏仁核神经元在社会认知中的作用。
