【Neuron】Fudan Department of Brain and Huashan Hospital Team: The important role of the optic cortex in temporal information prediction

This article is the original of the translational medicine network, please indicate the source when reprinting

Author: Lily

Although time is important in our daily lives, our understanding of how the human brain mediates time perception at the second scale is limited
.
Here, the researchers combined intracranial electrocerebral (SEEG) recordings of epilepsy patients with circuit anatomy in mice to show that the visual cortex (VC) encodes timing information
.

First, the researchers asked human participants to perform interval timing tasks and found that VCs are a key timing area of the
brain.
The researchers then performed optogenetic experiments in mice and showed that VCs play an important role
in spacer timing behavior.
It was further found that VC neurons are excited in a chronological manner and exhibit increased excitability
in a timed manner.
Finally, use the computational model to illustrate a self-correcting learning process that generates an interval timing activity
with scalar timing properties.
The work reveals how local oscillations occurring in the VC in the range of seconds to ten seconds correlate timing information from the outside world to guide behavior
.

The perception and prediction of various signals that occur at different time intervals in the environment are of great significance to the survival and evolution of animals
.
A classic example is that to avoid predators in time, animals must effectively make accurate predictions about different time signals
.

On October 3, the team of Mao Ying and Chen Liang of Huashan Hospital affiliated to Fudan University and the team of Jiayi Zhang of the Academy of Brain Sciences/State Key Laboratory of Medical Neurobiology of Fudan University published their latest research results in the famous top journal of neuroscience, Neuron, showing the team's significant progress in the research of temporal information prediction and revealing the important mechanism of
temporal prediction information encoded by the optic cortex.
This work is also the result
of close cooperation between the foundation and the clinic.

the researchers recorded and analyzed the intracranial multichannel EEG (SEEG) signals in 28 brain regions of the human brain and found that the EEG in the optic cortex showed two characteristics before making the time-information prediction behavior: an increase in alpha band energy and a phase synchronization
in the delta band.

In the mouse experiments, the research team further applied a number of experimental techniques such as optogenetics and in vivo patch clamp recording, and combined with behavioral experiments, found that the temporal prediction behavior of mice was similar to that of humans, and also highly correlated with the EEG energy of the primary optic cortex, and also found that some optic cortex neurons had excitatory enhancement related to temporal information prediction, and there were significant features
of sequential discharge of optic cortex neurons with enhanced excitability.

Schematic diagram of human and mouse temporal prediction behavior, EEG signals, and temporal cell plasticity

On the basis of these biological experiments, the collaborative team proposed a cortical computational model based on bilayer attractors and time cells, which revealed the self-correcting plasticity of
optocortical neural networks when processing second-level time information.
Through this law of plasticity change, the visual cortex can encode the visual time prediction information, which significantly advances the understanding of
the brain's time prediction mechanism.

Resources:

This article is intended to introduce medical research advances and cannot be used as a reference for
treatment options.
For health guidance, please visit a regular hospital
.

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