Neuroscience Research ( IF 2.9 ) Pub Date : 2021-07-15 , DOI: 10.1016/j.neures.2021.07.002 Tomoya Ohnuki 1 , Yuma Osako 1 , Hiroyuki Manabe 1 , Yoshio Sakurai 1 , Junya Hirokawa 1
The brain is organized into anatomically distinct structures consisting of a variety of projection neurons. While such evolutionarily conserved neural circuit organization underlies the innate ability of animals to swiftly adapt to environments, they can cause biased cognition and behavior. Although recent studies have begun to address the causal importance of projection-neuron types as distinct computational units, it remains unclear how projection types are functionally organized in encoding variables during cognitive tasks. This review focuses on the neural computation of decision making in the prefrontal cortex and discusses what decision variables are encoded by single neurons, neuronal populations, and projection type, alongside how specific projection types constrain decision making. We focus particularly on "over-representations" of distinct decision variables in the prefrontal cortex that reflect the biological and subjective significance of the variables for the decision makers. We suggest that task-specific over-representation in the prefrontal cortex involves the refinement of the given decision making, while generalized over-representation of fundamental decision variables is associated with suboptimal decision biases, including pathological ones such as those in patients with psychiatric disorders. Such over-representation of the fundamental decision variables in the prefrontal cortex appear to be tightly constrained by afferent and efferent connections that can be optogenetically intervened on. These ideas may provide critical insights into potential therapeutic targets for psychiatric disorders, including addiction and depression.
中文翻译:
前额叶皮层中基本决策变量的过度代表是决策偏差的基础
大脑被组织成解剖学上不同的结构,由各种投射神经元组成。虽然这种进化上保守的神经回路组织是动物迅速适应环境的先天能力的基础,但它们会导致认知和行为有偏见。尽管最近的研究已经开始解决投射神经元类型作为不同计算单元的因果重要性,但仍不清楚投射类型在认知任务期间如何在编码变量中进行功能组织。本综述重点关注前额叶皮层决策的神经计算,并讨论由单个神经元、神经元群和投射类型编码的决策变量,以及特定投射类型如何限制决策。我们特别关注“过度代表” 前额叶皮层中不同的决策变量,反映了这些变量对决策者的生物学和主观意义。我们建议前额叶皮层中特定任务的过度表达涉及对给定决策的改进,而基本决策变量的普遍过度表达与次优决策偏差有关,包括病理性偏差,例如精神疾病患者的偏差。前额叶皮层中基本决策变量的这种过度表现似乎受到可以光遗传学干预的传入和传出连接的严格限制。这些想法可能为精神障碍(包括成瘾和抑郁症)的潜在治疗目标提供重要见解。