Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom.
Purdue University School of Health Sciences, West Lafayette, Indiana, United States of America.
PLoS Biol. 2023 Mar 10;21(3):e3002029. doi: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3002029. eCollection 2023 Mar.
Experience and training are known to boost our skills and mold the brain's organization and function. Yet, structural plasticity and functional neurotransmission are typically studied at different scales (large-scale networks, local circuits), limiting our understanding of the adaptive interactions that support learning of complex cognitive skills in the adult brain. Here, we employ multimodal brain imaging to investigate the link between microstructural (myelination) and neurochemical (GABAergic) plasticity for decision-making. We test (in males, due to potential confounding menstrual cycle effects on GABA measurements in females) for changes in MRI-measured myelin, GABA, and functional connectivity before versus after training on a perceptual decision task that involves identifying targets in clutter. We demonstrate that training alters subcortical (pulvinar, hippocampus) myelination and its functional connectivity to visual cortex and relates to decreased visual cortex GABAergic inhibition. Modeling interactions between MRI measures of myelin, GABA, and functional connectivity indicates that pulvinar myelin plasticity interacts-through thalamocortical connectivity-with GABAergic inhibition in visual cortex to support learning. Our findings propose a dynamic interplay of adaptive microstructural and neurochemical plasticity in subcortico-cortical circuits that supports learning for optimized decision-making in the adult human brain.
经验和训练被认为可以提高我们的技能,并塑造大脑的组织和功能。然而,结构可塑性和功能神经传递通常在不同的尺度上进行研究(大规模网络、局部回路),这限制了我们对支持成年人大脑复杂认知技能学习的适应性相互作用的理解。在这里,我们采用多模态脑成像来研究决策的微观结构(髓鞘)和神经化学(GABA 能)可塑性之间的联系。我们在男性中进行了测试(由于女性的月经周期对 GABA 测量可能会产生干扰),以测试在一项涉及在杂乱中识别目标的感知决策任务中进行训练前后,MRI 测量的髓鞘、GABA 和功能连接的变化。我们证明,训练改变了皮质下(丘脑下核、海马体)髓鞘及其与视觉皮层的功能连接,并与视觉皮层 GABA 能抑制的减少有关。对 MRI 测量的髓鞘、GABA 和功能连接之间相互作用的建模表明,丘脑下核的髓鞘可塑性通过丘脑皮质连接与视觉皮层的 GABA 能抑制相互作用,以支持学习。我们的研究结果提出了一种自适应微观结构和神经化学可塑性在皮质下-皮质回路中的动态相互作用,这种相互作用支持了成年人大脑优化决策的学习。
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