Pujara Maia S, Ciesinski Nicole K, Reyelts Joseph F, Rhodes Sarah E V, Murray Elisabeth A
Section on the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, Laboratory of Neuropsychology, National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892.
Section on the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, Laboratory of Neuropsychology, National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892
J Neurosci. 2022 Jul 13;42(28):5593-5604. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0794-21.2022.
Lesion studies in macaques suggest dissociable functions of the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) and medial frontal cortex (MFC), with OFC being essential for goal-directed decision-making and MFC supporting social cognition. Bilateral amygdala damage results in impairments in both of these domains. There are extensive reciprocal connections between these prefrontal areas and the amygdala; however, it is not known whether the dissociable roles of OFC and MFC depend on functional interactions with the amygdala. To test this possibility, we compared the performance of male rhesus macaques () with crossed surgical disconnection of the amygdala and either MFC (MFC × AMY, = 4) or OFC (OFC × AMY, = 4) to a group of unoperated controls (CON, = 5). All monkeys were assessed for their performance on two tasks to measure the following: (1) food-retrieval latencies while viewing videos of social and nonsocial stimuli in a test of social interest and (2) object choices based on current food value using reinforcer devaluation in a test of goal-directed decision-making. Compared with the CON group, the MFC × AMY group, but not the OFC × AMY group, showed significantly reduced food-retrieval latencies while viewing videos of conspecifics, indicating reduced social valuation and/or interest. By contrast, on the devaluation task, group OFC × AMY, but not group MFC × AMY, displayed deficits on object choices following changes in food value. These data indicate that the MFC and OFC must functionally interact with the amygdala to support normative social and nonsocial valuation, respectively. Ascribing value to conspecifics (social) versus objects (nonsocial) may be supported by distinct but overlapping brain networks. Here, we test whether two nonoverlapping regions of the prefrontal cortex, the medial frontal cortex and the orbitofrontal cortex, must causally interact with the amygdala to sustain social valuation and goal-directed decision-making, respectively. We found that these prefrontal-amygdala circuits are functionally dissociable, lending support for the idea that medial frontal and orbital frontal cortex make independent contributions to cognitive appraisals of the environment. These data provide a neural framework for distinct value assignment processes and may enhance our understanding of the cognitive deficits observed following brain injury or in the development of mental health disorders.
对猕猴的损伤研究表明，眶额皮质（OFC）和内侧前额叶皮质（MFC）具有可分离的功能，其中OFC对目标导向的决策至关重要，而MFC支持社会认知。双侧杏仁核损伤会导致这两个领域的功能受损。这些前额叶区域与杏仁核之间存在广泛的相互连接；然而，尚不清楚OFC和MFC的可分离作用是否依赖于与杏仁核的功能相互作用。为了检验这种可能性，我们将杏仁核与MFC（MFC×AMY，n = 4）或OFC（OFC×AMY，n = 4）交叉手术切断的雄性恒河猴的表现与一组未手术的对照组（CON，n = 5）进行了比较。所有猴子都在两项任务中接受了表现评估，以测量以下方面：（1）在社会兴趣测试中观看社会和非社会刺激视频时的食物获取潜伏期，以及（2）在目标导向决策测试中使用强化物贬值基于当前食物价值进行的物体选择。与CON组相比，MFC×AMY组而非OFC×AMY组在观看同种个体视频时食物获取潜伏期显著缩短，表明社会评估和/或兴趣降低。相比之下，在贬值任务中，OFC×AMY组而非MFC×AMY组在食物价值变化后物体选择上表现出缺陷。这些数据表明，MFC和OFC必须分别与杏仁核进行功能交互，以支持规范的社会和非社会评估。将价值赋予同种个体（社会）与物体（非社会）可能由不同但重叠的脑网络支持。在这里，我们测试前额叶皮质的两个非重叠区域，即内侧前额叶皮质和眶额皮质，是否必须分别与杏仁核进行因果交互，以维持社会评估和目标导向决策。我们发现这些前额叶 - 杏仁核回路在功能上是可分离的，这支持了内侧前额叶和眶额皮质对环境认知评估做出独立贡献的观点。这些数据为不同的价值分配过程提供了一个神经框架，并可能增强我们对脑损伤后或心理健康障碍发展中观察到的认知缺陷的理解。
