Molecular Neurobiology Laboratory, The Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA.
Janelia Research Campus, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Ashburn, VA 20147, USA.
Curr Biol. 2020 Dec 7;30(23):R1401-R1406. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2020.09.069.
The claustrum is a brain region that has been investigated for over 200 years, yet its precise function remains unknown. In the final posthumously released article of Francis Crick, written with Christof Koch, the claustrum was suggested to be critically linked to consciousness. Though the claustrum remained relatively obscure throughout the last half century, it has enjoyed a renewed interest in the last 15 years since Crick and Koch's article. During this time, the claustrum, like many other brain regions, has been studied with the myriad of modern systems neuroscience tools that have been made available by the intersection of genetic and viral technologies. This has uncovered new information about its anatomical connectivity and physiological properties and begun to reveal aspects of its function. From these studies, one clear consensus has emerged which supports Crick and Koch's primary interest in the claustrum: the claustrum has widespread extensive connectivity with the entire cerebral cortex, suggesting a prominent role in 'higher order processes'.
屏状核是一个已经被研究了 200 多年的大脑区域，但它的确切功能仍然未知。弗朗西斯·克里克（Francis Crick）在与克里斯托夫·科赫（Christof Koch）合著的最后一篇遗作中提出，屏状核与意识有密切的联系。尽管在过去的半个世纪里，屏状核一直相对不为人知，但自克里克和科赫的文章发表以来，它在过去 15 年中重新引起了人们的兴趣。在此期间，屏状核与许多其他大脑区域一样，随着基因和病毒技术的交叉应用，各种现代系统神经科学工具的出现，对其解剖连接和生理特性进行了研究。这揭示了有关其功能的新信息。从这些研究中，出现了一个明确的共识，支持了克里克和科赫对屏状核的主要兴趣：屏状核与整个大脑皮层广泛而广泛地连接，表明它在“更高阶的过程”中发挥着重要作用。
