美国芝加哥大学David J. Freedman团队近期取得重要工作进展，他们研究提出，灵长类动物的上丘参与抽象的高阶认知。相关研究成果2024年9月19日在线发表于《自然—神经科学》杂志上。

据介绍，上丘是一个演化上保守的中脑区域，被认为介导了空间定向，包括眼跳运动和隐性空间注意力。

研究人员揭示了上丘在高阶认知中的作用，与它在空间定向中的作用无关。研究人员训练恒河猴执行一项抽象的视觉分类任务，该任务既不涉及指示的眼球运动，也不涉及隐性注意力的差异。研究人员比较了上丘和后顶叶皮层的神经活动，这是一个先前被证明对抽象类别决策有因果关系的区域。上丘对习得的视觉类别表现出强大的编码能力，这比后顶叶皮层更强，并且在这两个区域的潜伏期相似。

此外，上丘的失活显著损害了动物的类别决策。

总之，这一研究结果表明，灵长类上丘介导了传统上归因于新皮层的抽象、高阶认知过程。

附：英文原文

Title: Primate superior colliculus is causally engaged in abstract higher-order cognition

Author: Peysakhovich, Barbara, Zhu, Ou, Tetrick, Stephanie M., Shirhatti, Vinay, Silva, Alessandra A., Li, Sihai, Ibos, Guilhem, Rosen, Matthew C., Johnston, W. Jeffrey, Freedman, David J.

Issue&Volume: 2024-09-19

Abstract: The superior colliculus is an evolutionarily conserved midbrain region that is thought to mediate spatial orienting, including saccadic eye movements and covert spatial attention. Here, we reveal a role for the superior colliculus in higher-order cognition, independent of its role in spatial orienting. We trained rhesus macaques to perform an abstract visual categorization task that involved neither instructed eye movements nor differences in covert attention. We compared neural activity in the superior colliculus and the posterior parietal cortex, a region previously shown to causally contribute to abstract category decisions. The superior colliculus exhibits robust encoding of learned visual categories, which is stronger than in the posterior parietal cortex and arises at a similar latency in the two areas. Moreover, inactivation of the superior colliculus markedly impaired animals’ category decisions. These results demonstrate that the primate superior colliculus mediates abstract, higher-order cognitive processes that have traditionally been attributed to the neocortex.

DOI: 10.1038/s41593-024-01744-x

Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41593-024-01744-x