北卡罗来纳大学Hiroyuki K. Kato课题组取得一项新突破。他们的研究认为眼窝额叶皮层驱动感官反应的预测性过滤。2026年2月24日出版的《自然—神经科学》杂志发表了这项成果。

在这里，该研究团队评估了两种相互竞争的自上而下的机制对小鼠习惯化的解释（预测性过滤的增长和新奇驱动放大的减弱），并确定了眼窝前额皮质（OFC）在预测性过滤中的意想不到的作用。在每天的声音暴露后，初级听觉皮层（A1）的神经习惯化通过使OFC失活而逆转。来自OFC的自上而下的投射，而不是其他额叶区域，携带着随着日常声音体验而增长的预测信号，并通过表达生长抑素的抑制性神经元抑制A1。他们，来自OFC的预测信号通过在感觉皮层产生“负面图像”来抵消预期的刺激。

研究人员表示，习惯化是一种重要的感觉过滤机制，它的失调会导致超敏障碍患者的世界持续紧张。虽然习惯化通常被称为最简单的学习形式，但其回路机制仍然是未知的。传统的外围解释不能完全解释复杂感官环境中的长期习惯，导致理论提出自上而下的调节。

附：英文原文

Title: Orbitofrontal cortex drives predictive filtering of sensory responses

Author: Tsukano, Hiroaki, Garcia, Michellee M., Dandu, Pranathi R., Kato, Hiroyuki K.

Issue&Volume: 2026-02-24

Abstract: Habituation is a crucial sensory filtering mechanism whose dysregulation can lead to a continuously intense world in disorders with hypersensitivity. Although habituation is often termed the simplest form of learning, its circuit mechanisms remain elusive. Conventional peripheral explanations fail to fully account for long-term habituation in complex sensory environments, leading to theories proposing top-down regulation. Here we evaluated two competing top-down mechanistic explanations for habituation in mice (growth in predictive filtering and waning of novelty-driven amplification) and identified an unexpected role for the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) in predictive filtering. After daily sound exposure, neural habituation in the primary auditory cortex (A1) was reversed by inactivating the OFC. Top-down projections from the OFC, but not other frontal areas, carried predictive signals that grew with daily sound experience and suppressed A1 via somatostatin-expressing inhibitory neurons. Thus, prediction signals from the OFC cancel out anticipated stimuli by generating their ‘negative images’ in sensory cortices.

DOI: 10.1038/s41593-026-02217-z

Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41593-026-02217-z