Department of Neurosurgery, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA 90048, USA.
Department of Neurosurgery, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA.
Neuron. 2021 Mar 3;109(5):869-881.e6. doi: 10.1016/j.neuron.2020.12.025. Epub 2021 Jan 21.
The subthalamic nucleus (STN) supports action selection by inhibiting all motor programs except the desired one. Recent evidence suggests that STN can also cancel an already selected action when goals change, a key aspect of cognitive control. However, there is little neurophysiological evidence for dissociation between selecting and cancelling actions in the human STN. We recorded single neurons in the STN of humans performing a stop-signal task. Movement-related neurons suppressed their activity during successful stopping, whereas stop-signal neurons activated at low-latencies near the stop-signal reaction time. In contrast, STN and motor-cortical beta-bursting occurred only later in the stopping process. Task-related neuronal properties varied by recording location from dorsolateral movement to ventromedial stop-signal tuning. Therefore, action selection and cancellation coexist in STN but are anatomically segregated. These results show that human ventromedial STN neurons carry fast stop-related signals suitable for implementing cognitive control.
底丘脑核（STN）通过抑制除所需运动程序外的所有运动程序来支持动作选择。最近的证据表明，当目标发生变化时，STN 也可以取消已经选择的动作，这是认知控制的一个关键方面。然而，关于人类 STN 中选择和取消动作之间的分离，神经生理学证据很少。我们在执行停止信号任务的人类 STN 中记录了单个神经元。运动相关神经元在成功停止时抑制其活动，而停止信号神经元在接近停止信号反应时间的低潜伏期处激活。相比之下，STN 和运动皮质的β爆发仅在停止过程的后期发生。任务相关神经元的特性因记录位置而异，从背外侧运动到腹内侧停止信号调谐。因此，动作选择和取消在 STN 中共存，但在解剖上是分开的。这些结果表明，人类腹侧 STN 神经元携带适合执行认知控制的快速停止相关信号。
