Human single-neuron responses at the threshold of conscious recognition

被引：142

作者：

Quiroga, R. Quian ^{[1
,2
,3
]}

Mukamel, R. ^{[1
,2
]}

Isham, E. A. ^{[4
]}

Malach, R. ^{[5
]}

Fried, I. ^{[1
,2
,6
,7
]}

机构：

[1] Univ Calif Los Angeles, David Geffen Sch Med, Div Neurosurg, Los Angeles, CA 90095 USA

[2] Univ Calif Los Angeles, Semel Inst Neurosci & Human Behav, Los Angeles, CA 90095 USA

[3] Univ Leicester, Dept Engn, Leicester LE1 7RH, Leics, England

[4] Claremont Grad Univ, Dept Psychol, Claremont, CA 91711 USA

[5] Weizmann Inst Sci, Dept Neurobiol, IL-76100 Rehovot, Israel

[6] Tel Aviv Univ, Tel Aviv Med Ctr, Funct Neurosurg Unit, IL-69978 Tel Aviv, Israel

[7] Tel Aviv Univ, Sackler Fac Med, IL-69978 Tel Aviv, Israel

来源：

PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA | 2008年 / 105卷 / 09期

基金：

英国医学研究理事会; 英国工程与自然科学研究理事会;

关键词：

consciousness; memory; visual perception; medial temporal lobe; epilepsy;

D O I：

10.1073/pnas.0707043105

中图分类号：

O [数理科学和化学]; P [天文学、地球科学]; Q [生物科学]; N [自然科学总论];

学科分类号：

07 ; 0710 ; 09 ;

摘要：

We studied the responses of single neurons in the human medial temporal lobe while subjects viewed familiar faces, animals, and landmarks. By progressively shortening the duration of stimulus presentation, coupled with backward masking, we show two striking properties of these neurons. (i) Their responses are not statistically different for the 33-ms, 66-ms, and 132-ms stimulus durations, and only for the 264-ms presentations there is a significantly higher firing. (it) These responses follow conscious perception, as indicated by the subjects' recognition report. Remarkably, when recognized, a single snapshot as brief as 33 ms was sufficient to trigger strong single-unit responses far outlasting stimulus presentation. These results suggest that neurons in the medial temporal lobe can reflect conscious recognition by "all-or-none" responses.

引用

页码：3599 / 3604

页数：6

共 34 条

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