美国圣路易斯华盛顿大学Ilya E. Monosov、Takaya Ogasawara等研究人员合作发现一条灵长类中寻求新奇的神经回路。2021年12月13日，《自然—神经科学》杂志在线发表了这一最新研究成果。

研究人员表明，猴子的新奇寻求是由未定带（ZI）调节的。当猴子对熟悉的物体进行眼球运动来引发观看新奇物体的机会时，许多ZI神经元在目光转移之前被预测的新奇物体优先激活。低强度的ZI刺激促进了目光的转移，而ZI失活则减少了新奇的寻求。ZI依赖的新奇性寻求不受外侧缰核的神经元或黑质中许多多巴胺神经元的调节，与传统上的奖励寻求有关。但前腹内侧颞叶皮层，一个对物体视觉和记忆很重要的区域，是新奇性预测的一个突出来源。这些数据揭示了灵长类动物大脑中调节新奇感的功能途径。

据悉，灵长类动物通过探索视觉对象与世界互动；它们寻找机会观看新奇的对象，即使这些对象没有外在的奖励价值。大脑如何控制这种寻求新奇的行为尚不清楚。

附：英文原文

Title: A primate temporal cortex–zona incerta pathway for novelty seeking

Author: Ogasawara, Takaya, Sogukpinar, Fatih, Zhang, Kaining, Feng, Yang-Yang, Pai, Julia, Jezzini, Ahmad, Monosov, Ilya E.

Issue&Volume: 2021-12-13

Abstract: Primates interact with the world by exploring visual objects; they seek opportunities to view novel objects even when these have no extrinsic reward value. How the brain controls this novelty seeking is unknown. Here we show that novelty seeking in monkeys is regulated by the zona incerta (ZI). As monkeys made eye movements to familiar objects to trigger an opportunity to view novel objects, many ZI neurons were preferentially activated by predictions of novel objects before the gaze shift. Low-intensity ZI stimulation facilitated gaze shifts, whereas ZI inactivation reduced novelty seeking. ZI-dependent novelty seeking was not regulated by neurons in the lateral habenula or by many dopamine neurons in the substantia nigra, traditionally associated with reward seeking. But the anterior ventral medial temporal cortex, an area important for object vision and memory, was a prominent source of novelty predictions. These data uncover a functional pathway in the primate brain that regulates novelty seeking.

DOI: 10.1038/s41593-021-00950-1

Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41593-021-00950-1

期刊信息

Nature Neuroscience：《自然—神经科学》，创刊于1998年。隶属于施普林格·自然出版集团，最新IF：21.126

官方网址：https://www.nature.com/neuro/

投稿链接：https://mts-nn.nature.com/cgi-bin/main.plex