Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, Boston University School of Medicine, 72 East Concord St., Boston, MA, 02118, USA.
Brain Struct Funct. 2021 Dec;226(9):2793-2806. doi: 10.1007/s00429-021-02360-2. Epub 2021 Aug 12.
An ordered relation of structure and function has been a cornerstone in thinking about brain organization. Like the brain itself, however, this is not straightforward and is confounded both by functional intricacy and structural plasticity (many routes to a given outcome). As a striking case of putative structure-function correlation, this mini-review focuses on the relatively well-characterized pattern of cytochrome oxidase (CO) blobs (aka "patches" or "puffs") in the supragranular layers of macaque monkey visual cortex. The pattern is without doubt visually compelling, and the semi-dichotomous array of CO+ blobs and CO- interblobs is consistent with multiple studies reporting compartment-specific preferential connectivity and distinctive physiological response properties. Nevertheless, as briefly reviewed here, the finer anatomical organization of this system is surprisingly under-investigated, and the relation to functional aspects, therefore, unclear. Microcircuitry, cell type, and three-dimensional spatiotemporal level investigations of the CO+ CO- pattern are needed and may open new views to structure-function organization of visual cortex, and to phylogenetic and ontogenetic comparisons across nonhuman primates (NHP), and between NHP and humans.
结构与功能的有序关系一直是思考大脑组织的基石。然而，与大脑本身一样，这并不简单，既受到功能复杂性的影响，也受到结构可塑性（许多途径都能达到给定的结果）的影响。作为假定的结构-功能相关性的一个显著案例，本篇简要综述主要关注猕猴视觉皮层颗粒层上层中相对特征明确的细胞色素氧化酶（CO）斑（又名“斑块”或“泡”）模式。这种模式无疑在视觉上引人注目，并且 CO+斑和 CO-间斑的半二分排列与多项报告特定隔室优先连接性和独特生理反应特性的研究一致。然而，正如这里简要综述的那样，该系统的更精细的解剖组织研究令人惊讶地不足，因此，其与功能方面的关系尚不清楚。需要对 CO+CO-模式的微电路、细胞类型和三维时空水平进行研究，这可能为视觉皮层的结构-功能组织以及非人类灵长类动物（NHP）之间、NHP 与人类之间的系统发育和个体发生比较开辟新的视角。
