生物谷报道：本期Nature刚刚报道，美国科学家采用功能成像的方式精细地显示了视皮层的微功能柱结构，在单细胞水平上了解了大脑细胞的排列方式与功能的关系，是近年来在大脑细胞排列分布上的最重大的突破之一。这结果也表明，大脑功能结构在单细胞水平上就已表现出来。
Figure 1 Functional maps of selective responses in rat visual cortex with single-cell resolution. a, In vivo images of cortical cells stained with a calcium indicator, OGB-1 AM. The top panel shows a volume of stained cells (depth of 85–400 µm including >3,000 cells) reconstructed from images obtained with 1 µm spacing in depth; the bottom panel is an anatomical image at 290 µm below the pia, averaged over all frames during the visual stimulation protocol. b, Single-condition maps (F) for eight directions of visual stimuli (outer panels; the arrows indicate stimulus direction). Each map is the average of eight repeats. In this and subsequent figures, the scale bar (F) only applies to the outer panels. The central panel is re-drawn from a. c, Pixel-based orientation map, in which hue is determined by the best orientation (see text and Methods), overlaid with the anatomical image in a. d, Time courses of four orientation-selective cells (1–4) in e. The upper traces show the average response to eight repeats ( s.e.m. in grey); lower traces show three individual repeats. Visual stimulation periods for eight directions are indicated by grey bars. e, Cell-based orientation map. Visually responsive cells (P < 0.01, ANOVA; 45/115) are coloured according to their preferred orientation. Scale bars, 100 µm.
Figure 3 Direction discontinuity in cat visual cortex. a, Single-condition maps (F) imaged 180 µm below the pia are shown in the outer panels. The central panel shows the anatomical image as in Fig. 1. Cells were activated almost exclusively by stimuli of one orientation moving in either direction (45° and 225°). To the non-preferred stimuli, such as 90°, the calcium responses were so small and the noise was so low that the single-condition maps are almost indistinguishable from zero. b, Cell-based direction map; 100% of cells had significant responses. Colour specifies preferred direction (green, 225°; red, 45°). The cells responding to both 45° and 225° are displayed as grey, according to their direction index (see colour scale on right). The vertical white line below the arrow indicates approximate position of the direction discontinuity. The discontinuity was curved in the upper right of the panel (see Supplementary Fig. 3), so we excluded the neurons above the arrow from quantitative analysis. c, Single-trial time courses of six cells, numbered (1–6) as in b. Five trials (out of ten) are superimposed. d, Direction discontinuity from another animal, imaged 240 µm below the pia. Scale bars, 100 µm.
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