There has been considerable progress in recent years toward understanding the neuronal mechanisms mediating time perception. Notably, the striatum and its dopamine (DA) input from the ventral midbrain are considered to be central for timing on the scale of hundreds of milliseconds and seconds. The cholinergic interneurons (ChIs) of the striatum provide an extensive local innervation, which closely interacts with striatal DA afferents. Both neuronal systems have been shown to influence synaptic plasticity to shape the transfer of information through the striatum. Given their cooperative role in regulating striatal output pathways, DA and cholinergic inputs may have distinct but complementary roles in timing processes. Electrophysiological recordings from behaving animals have provided evidence that responses of midbrain DA neurons and striatal tonically active neurons (TANs), presumed ChIs, to motivationally relevant events are sensitive to the predicted time of these events; namely, changes in neuronal activity are reduced or absent at times when events are more expected, indicating that temporal aspects of prediction play an important role in the responsiveness of these two neuronal systems. Recently, new findings have further suggested that DA neurons and cholinergic TANs are both involved in the ability to keep track of the elapsed time. These two systems appear to work in parallel in initiating the timing process at the beginning of an interval to be timed. It therefore appears that DA and ChI signaling could participate in striatal processing that is crucial for the control of timing behavior.

中文翻译：

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纹状体中的时间加工：中脑多巴胺神经元和纹状体胆碱能神经元之间的相互作用

近年来，在理解介导时间知觉的神经元机制方面已取得相当大的进步。值得注意的是，从腹侧中脑输入的纹状体及其多巴胺（DA）被认为对于数百毫秒和几秒钟的计时至关重要。纹状体的胆碱能神经元（ChIs）提供了广泛的局部神经支配，它与纹状体DA传入神经密切相互作用。已经证明两个神经元系统都影响突触可塑性，以塑造信息通过纹状体的传递。鉴于它们在调节纹状体输出途径中的协同作用，DA和胆碱能输入可能在计时过程中具有独特但互补的作用。行为动物的电生理记录提供了证据，即假定的ChI对中枢DA神经元和纹状体强音活动神经元（TAN）对动机相关事件的响应对这些事件的预测时间敏感。就是说，当人们更加期待事件发生时，神经元活动的变化就会减少或消失，这表明预测的时间方面在这两个神经元系统的反应能力中起着重要的作用。最近，新的发现进一步表明，DA神经元和胆碱能TAN都参与了跟踪经过时间的能力。在要计时的间隔开始时，这两个系统似乎在并行启动计时过程。