Zur Gil, Larry Noga, Cain Matan, Lixenberg Adi, Yarkoni Merav, Behling Stuart, Joshua Mati
Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Brain Sciences, the Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel.
Department of Neurobiology, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC, United States.
iScience. 2024 Aug 3;27(9):110667. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2024.110667. eCollection 2024 Sep 20.
The substantia nigra pars reticulata (SNpr), an output structure of the basal ganglia, is hypothesized to gate movement execution. Previous studies in the eye movement system focusing mostly on saccades have reported that SNpr neurons are tonically active and either pause or increase their firing during movements, consistent with the gating role. We recorded activity in the SNpr of two monkeys during smooth pursuit and saccadic eye movements. SNpr neurons exhibited highly diverse reaction patterns during pursuit, including frequent increases and decreases in firing rate, uncorrelated responses in different movement directions and in reward conditions that resulted in the high dimensional activity of single neurons. These diverse temporal patterns surpassed those in other oculomotor areas in the medial-temporal cortex, frontal cortex, basal ganglia, and cerebellum. These findings suggest that temporal properties of the responses enrich the coding capacity of the basal ganglia output beyond gating or permitting movement.
黑质网状部（SNpr）是基底神经节的一个输出结构，据推测其作用是控制运动的执行。先前在眼动系统中主要聚焦于扫视运动的研究报告称，SNpr神经元持续活跃，在运动过程中要么暂停放电，要么增加放电频率，这与控制作用相符。我们记录了两只猴子在平稳跟踪和扫视眼动过程中SNpr的活动。在跟踪过程中，SNpr神经元表现出高度多样的反应模式，包括放电频率频繁增加和减少、在不同运动方向以及奖励条件下的不相关反应，这些导致单个神经元呈现高维活动。这些多样的时间模式超过了内侧颞叶皮质、额叶皮质、基底神经节和小脑中其他眼动区域的模式。这些发现表明，反应的时间特性丰富了基底神经节输出的编码能力，超出了控制或允许运动的范畴。
