School of Psychology, Neuroscience and Mental Health Research Institute, Cardiff University, Cardiff, CF10 3AT, UK.
School of Psychology, Neuroscience and Mental Health Research Institute, Cardiff University, Cardiff, CF10 3AT, UK.
Neurosci Biobehav Rev. 2021 Feb;121:60-74. doi: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2020.11.031. Epub 2020 Dec 9.
The medial diencephalon, in particular the mammillary bodies and anterior thalamic nuclei, has long been linked to memory and amnesia. The mammillary bodies provide a dense input into the anterior thalamic nuclei, via the mammillothalamic tract. In both animal models, and in patients, lesions of the mammillary bodies, mammillothalamic tract and anterior thalamic nuclei all produce severe impairments in temporal and contextual memory, yet it is uncertain why these regions are critical. Mounting evidence from electrophysiological and neural imaging studies suggests that mammillothalamic projections exercise considerable distal influence over thalamo-cortical and hippocampo-cortical interactions. Here, we outline how damage to the mammillary body-anterior thalamic axis, in both patients and animal models, disrupts behavioural performance on tasks that relate to contextual ("where") and temporal ("when") processing. Focusing on the medial mammillary nuclei as a possible 'theta-generator' (through their interconnections with the ventral tegmental nucleus of Gudden) we discuss how the mammillary body-anterior thalamic pathway may contribute to the mechanisms via which the hippocampus and neocortex encode representations of experience.
内侧丘脑，特别是乳头体和前丘脑核，长期以来一直与记忆和遗忘有关。乳头体通过乳头丘脑束向丘脑前核提供密集的输入。在动物模型和患者中，乳头体、乳头丘脑束和丘脑前核的病变都会导致时间和情境记忆严重受损，但尚不清楚为什么这些区域如此关键。越来越多的电生理学和神经影像学研究证据表明，乳头丘脑投射对丘脑皮质和海马皮质相互作用具有相当大的远端影响。在这里，我们概述了在患者和动物模型中，乳头体-丘脑前核轴的损伤如何破坏与上下文（“在哪里”）和时间（“何时”）处理相关的任务的行为表现。我们专注于内侧乳头核作为可能的“θ 发生器”（通过它们与 Gudden 的腹侧被盖核的连接），讨论了乳头体-丘脑前核通路如何有助于海马体和新皮质编码经验的机制。
