Nishijo Hisao, Ono Taketoshi
Faculty of Medicine, University of Toyama.
Brain Nerve. 2021 Dec;73(12):1363-1369. doi: 10.11477/mf.1416201948.
Primates can recognize or respond to specific stimuli that are important for survival, such as faces, predators, prey animals, and foods, even if they have not experienced those stimuli previously (innate recognition). Throughout vertebrates, including primates, the extrageniculate visual system (subcortical visual pathway) comprising the retina, superior colliculus, pulvinar, and amygdala is thought to be genetically hard-wired and involved in innate recognition of these stimuli. To investigate neural mechanisms of innate recognition in primates, we analyzed single neuronal responses to facial images in the monkey pulvinar and superior colliculus. The results indicated that the pulvinar and superior collicular neurons responded preferentially to facial images in short latency and showed gamma oscillations during stimulus presentation. Furthermore, the population activity of these neurons discriminated head direction, sex, and identity of facial images. Based on these findings, we discussed neural mechanisms underlying the innate and automatic (unconscious) detection of facial stimuli in the extrageniculate visual system.
灵长类动物能够识别或对生存至关重要的特定刺激做出反应，例如面孔、捕食者、猎物动物和食物，即使它们以前从未经历过这些刺激（先天识别）。在包括灵长类动物在内的整个脊椎动物中，由视网膜、上丘、丘脑枕和杏仁核组成的膝状体外视觉系统（皮层下视觉通路）被认为是由基因硬连接的，并参与对这些刺激的先天识别。为了研究灵长类动物先天识别的神经机制，我们分析了猴子丘脑枕和上丘中单个神经元对面部图像的反应。结果表明，丘脑枕和上丘神经元在短潜伏期内对面部图像有优先反应，并在刺激呈现期间表现出伽马振荡。此外，这些神经元的群体活动能够区分面部图像的头部方向、性别和身份。基于这些发现，我们讨论了膝状体外视觉系统中对面部刺激进行先天和自动（无意识）检测的神经机制。
