Rizzolatti G, Camarda R, Fogassi L, Gentilucci M, Luppino G, Matelli M
Istituto di Fisiologia Umana, Universitá di Parma, Italy.
Exp Brain Res. 1988;71(3):491-507. doi: 10.1007/BF00248742.
The functional properties of neurons located in the rostral part of inferior area 6 were studied in awake, partially restrained macaque monkeys. The most interesting property of these neurons was that their firing correlated with specific goal-related motor acts rather than with single movements made by the animal. Using the motor acts as the classification criterion we subdivided the neurons into six classes, four related to distal motor acts and two related to proximal motor acts. The distal classes are: "Grasping-with-the-hand-and-the-mouth neurons", "Grasping-with-the-hand neurons", "Holding neurons" and "Tearing neurons". The proximal classes are: "Reaching neurons" and "Bringing-to-the-mouth-or-to-the-body neurons". The vast majority of the cells belonged to the distal classes. A particularly interesting aspect of distal class neurons was that the discharge of many of them depended on the way in which the hand was shaped during the motor act. Three main groups of neurons were distinguished: "Precision grip neurons", "Finger prehension neurons", "Whole hand prehension neurons". Almost the totality of neurons fired during motor acts performed with either hand. About 50% of the recorded neurons responded to somatosensory stimuli and about 20% to visual stimuli. Visual neurons were more difficult to trigger than the corresponding neurons located in the caudal part of inferior area 6 (area F4). They required motivationally meaningful stimuli and for some of them the size of the stimulus was also critical. In the case of distal neurons there was a relationship between the type of prehension coded by the cells and the size of the stimulus effective in triggering the neurons. It is proposed that the different classes of neurons form a vocabulary of motor acts and that this vocabulary can be assessed by somatosensory and visual stimuli.
在清醒、部分受限的猕猴中，对位于6区下部嘴侧部分的神经元的功能特性进行了研究。这些神经元最有趣的特性是，它们的放电与特定的目标相关运动行为相关，而不是与动物做出的单个动作相关。以运动行为作为分类标准，我们将这些神经元分为六类，四类与远端运动行为相关，两类与近端运动行为相关。远端类包括：“用手和嘴抓握神经元”、“用手抓握神经元”、“握持神经元”和“撕扯神经元”。近端类包括：“够取神经元”和“带到嘴或身体的神经元”。绝大多数细胞属于远端类。远端类神经元一个特别有趣的方面是，它们中的许多放电取决于运动行为过程中手的形状。区分出了三组主要的神经元：“精确抓握神经元”、“手指抓握神经元”、“全手抓握神经元”。几乎所有神经元在使用任一只手进行运动行为时都会放电。约50%的记录神经元对体感刺激有反应，约20%对视觉刺激有反应。视觉神经元比位于6区下部尾侧部分（F4区）的相应神经元更难触发。它们需要有动机意义的刺激，对其中一些神经元来说，刺激的大小也很关键。对于远端神经元，细胞编码的抓握类型与有效触发神经元的刺激大小之间存在关系。有人提出，不同类别的神经元形成了一个运动行为词汇表，并且这个词汇表可以通过体感和视觉刺激来评估。
