在这项工作中，研究组研究了在哺乳动物初级视觉皮层（V1）中出现的定向选择性的TC计算。利用体内双光子谷氨酸成像和光遗传皮质沉默技术，研究小组鉴定并表征了小鼠V1层4神经元上的TC突触。课题组发现TC-而非皮质皮质受体脊髓缺乏突触后Ca2+信号。他们的研究结果直接验证了Hubel和Wiesel前馈模型的核心预测，并揭示了突触的独特特性，这些特性对皮质计算和可塑性至关重要。
据了解，在单个突触水平上破译丘脑皮质（TC）的激活对于理解皮层如何处理感觉信息至关重要。
附：英文原文
Title: Thalamic activation of the visual cortex at the single-synapse level
Author: Yang Chen, Marinus Kloos, Zsuzsanna Varga, Yonghai Zhang, Inken Piro, Tatsuo K. Sato, Bert Sakmann, Israel Nelken, Arthur Konnerth
Issue&Volume: 2026-03-26
Abstract: Deciphering thalamocortical (TC) activation at the level of individual synapses is essential to understanding how the cortex processes sensory information. In this work, we studied TC computation underlying the emergence of orientation selectivity in the mammalian primary visual cortex (V1). Using two-photon glutamate imaging and optogenetic cortical silencing in vivo, we identified and characterized TC synapses onto mouse V1 layer 4 neurons. We found that TC- but not corticocortical-recipient spines lacked postsynaptic Ca2+ signals. Our results directly validate the core predictions of Hubel and Wiesel’s feedforward model and reveal distinctive synaptic properties that are critical for cortical computation and plasticity.
DOI: aec9923
Source: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aec9923