研究揭示自我和他人位置編碼的神經機制
作者:
小柯機器人發布時間:2020/12/25 15:17:48
2020年12月23日,《自然》雜誌在線發表了美國加州大學洛杉磯分校Nanthia Suthana、Matthias Stangl等研究人員的合作成果。這項研究揭示出自我和他人位置編碼的神經機制。
研究人員表示,社會環境中的日常任務要求人類不僅對自己的空間位置,而且對環境中其他人位置的神經表示進行編碼。目前,關於自我空間和其他空間神經表示的絕大多數知識都來自對齧齒動物和其他非人類動物的研究。但是,人腦如何體現其他人的位置,以及人類認知的各個方面如何影響這些位置編碼機制在很大程度上未知的。
為了解決這些問題,研究人員在進行現實世界的空間導航和觀察任務時測試了長期植入電極的志願者。研究人員報告了內側顳葉中邊界錨定的神經表示,這些表示由一個人以及另一個人的空間位置調節。這些表示取決於一個人的瞬時認知狀態,當位置編碼具有較高的行為相關性時,這些表示會增強。總之,這些結果為人腦中代表共同環境中自己和他人位置的通用編碼機制提供了證據,並為現實環境中空間導航和他人意識的神經機制提供了新的思路。
附:英文原文
Title: Boundary-anchored neural mechanisms of location-encoding for self and others
Author: Matthias Stangl, Uros Topalovic, Cory S. Inman, Sonja Hiller, Diane Villaroman, Zahra M. Aghajan, Leonardo Christov-Moore, Nicholas R. Hasulak, Vikram R. Rao, Casey H. Halpern, Dawn Eliashiv, Itzhak Fried, Nanthia Suthana
Issue&Volume: 2020-12-23
Abstract: Everyday tasks in social settings require humans to encode neural representations of not only their own spatial location, but also the location of other individuals within an environment. At present, the vast majority of what is known about neural representations of space for self and others stems from research in rodents and other non-human animals1,2,3. However, it is largely unknown how the human brain represents the location of others, and how aspects of human cognition may affect these location-encoding mechanisms. To address these questions, we examined individuals with chronically implanted electrodes while they carried out real-world spatial navigation and observation tasks. We report boundary-anchored neural representations in the medial temporal lobe that are modulated by one’s own as well as another individual’s spatial location. These representations depend on one’s momentary cognitive state, and are strengthened when encoding of location is of higher behavioural relevance. Together, these results provide evidence for a common encoding mechanism in the human brain that represents the location of oneself and others in shared environments, and shed new light on the neural mechanisms that underlie spatial navigation and awareness of others in real-world scenarios.
DOI: 10.1038/s41586-020-03073-y
Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-03073-y