Tolkunov B F, Orlov A A, Afanas'ev S V
Sechenov Institute of Enolutionary Physiology and Biochemistry, St. Petersburg, Russia.
Ross Fiziol Zh Im I M Sechenova. 1998 Aug;84(8):705-18.
The work of the central integrative neurons of the brain is concerned with the total evaluation of the heterogeneous signals and signals of different sensory modality, coming to these neurons via the parallel inputs. Due to the processing of this information central neurons participate in organization of the different acts of animal and in mechanisms of switching from one action to another. Therefore, to define what role the neuron plays in the behavior organization it is necessary to analyse dynamics of unit activities continuously during the all successively performed animal's actions. The traditional methods, such as post- and peristimlus histograms and crosscorrelation are not effective enough for this aim. They are useful for the analysis of the spikes that are situated close to the synchronizing signal only. The application of these methods for the study of unit activity related to extended behavioral program inevitably leads to creation of histograms for each action separately. Such sets of histogram do not reflect the real dynamics of neuronal activity corresponding to the continuum of the behavior. A complex approach is proposed for the study of neuronal correlates of behavior directed towards overcoming of the mentioned difficulties. This approach includes multicomponent behavioral program, recording o spikes in several units in parallel and analysis of unit activities in relative time scale, based on duration of each of the successively performed by the animal action. The nontraditional methods of the processing of spikes sequences are elaborated, such as relative time histograms and methods of the multivariate statistics. The realized on this principles analysis gives a full impression about neuronal activities uninterruptedly, during all stages of performance of the extended behavioral program. The described methods were approved in the experimental study of the functional characteristics of the striatal units in monkeys. The comparable data were obtained on the individual reactions of neurons and dynamics of their activities in group during the performance of behavior program. These data revealed lack of functional specialization of the striatal neurons and different forms of their involvement in the motor and cognitive functions.
大脑中枢整合神经元的工作涉及对通过并行输入传递给这些神经元的异质信号和不同感觉模态信号的全面评估。由于这种信息处理，中枢神经元参与动物不同行为的组织以及从一种行为转换到另一种行为的机制。因此，要确定神经元在行为组织中所起的作用，有必要在动物连续执行的所有行为过程中持续分析单位活动的动态。传统方法，如刺激后和刺激周围直方图以及互相关分析，对于这个目的来说不够有效。它们仅对靠近同步信号的尖峰分析有用。将这些方法应用于研究与扩展行为程序相关的单位活动，不可避免地会导致为每个行为分别创建直方图。这样的直方图集并不能反映与行为连续体相对应的神经元活动的真实动态。为克服上述困难，提出了一种用于研究行为神经元相关性的复杂方法。这种方法包括多成分行为程序、并行记录多个单位的尖峰以及基于动物连续执行的每个行为的持续时间在相对时间尺度上分析单位活动。阐述了处理尖峰序列的非传统方法，如相对时间直方图和多元统计方法。基于此原理进行的分析能够在扩展行为程序执行的所有阶段不间断地全面呈现神经元活动情况。所描述的方法在对猴子纹状体单位功能特性的实验研究中得到了验证。在行为程序执行过程中，获得了关于神经元个体反应及其群体活动动态的可比数据。这些数据揭示了纹状体神经元缺乏功能特化以及它们参与运动和认知功能的不同形式。
