College of Life Science, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
Front Neural Circuits. 2023 Jun 15;17:1189907. doi: 10.3389/fncir.2023.1189907. eCollection 2023.
Memories associated to signals have been proven to rely on the recruitment of associative memory neurons that are featured by mutual synapse innervations among cross-modal cortices. Whether the consolidation of associative memory is endorsed by the upregulation of associative memory neurons in an intramodal cortex remains to be examined. The function and interconnection of associative memory neurons were investigated by electrophysiology and adeno-associated virus-mediated neural tracing in those mice that experienced associative learning by pairing the whisker tactile signal and the olfactory signal. Our results show that odorant-induced whisker motion as a type of associative memory is coupled with the enhancement of whisking-induced whisker motion. In addition to some barrel cortical neurons encoding both whisker and olfactory signals, i.e., their recruitment as associative memory neurons, the synapse interconnection and spike-encoding capacity of associative memory neurons within the barrel cortex are upregulated. These upregulated alternations were partially observed in the activity-induced sensitization. In summary, associative memory is mechanistically based on the recruitment of associative memory neurons and the upregulation of their interactions in intramodal cortices.
与信号相关的记忆已被证明依赖于联想记忆神经元的募集，这些神经元的特征是跨模态皮质之间的突触相互神经支配。联想记忆的巩固是否通过同种模态皮质中联想记忆神经元的上调来支持，仍有待检验。通过电生理学和腺相关病毒介导的神经追踪，在那些通过将胡须触觉信号和嗅觉信号配对来经历联想学习的小鼠中，研究了联想记忆神经元的功能和相互连接。我们的结果表明，作为一种联想记忆的气味诱导的胡须运动与增强的胡须诱导的胡须运动相关联。除了一些编码胡须和嗅觉信号的桶状皮质神经元，即它们作为联想记忆神经元的募集外，桶状皮质内联想记忆神经元的突触连接和尖峰编码能力也上调。在活性诱导的敏化中部分观察到这些上调的改变。总之，联想记忆是基于同种模态皮质中联想记忆神经元的募集及其相互作用的上调的机制。
