4月8日,，國際著名雜志《自然—神經(jīng)科學》Nature Neuroscience在線刊登了國外研究人員的最新研究成果“Localized microstimulation of primate pregenual cingulate cortex induces negative decision-making,，”，文章中,，研究者揭示了焦慮情緒與大腦前扣帶皮層有關,。
雜志上的一項研究表明，對猴子大腦前扣帶皮層（pACC）的電流刺激會增加消極決策的概率,，但服用抗焦慮藥物可阻礙這種影響,。pACC已被認為與人焦慮癥和抑郁癥有關，這項研究揭示了它是如何導致病理學行為的,。
Graybiel等人提供兩種獎勵給猴子選擇,，其中較大的獎勵伴隨著對猴子的眼睛不停地吹氣，較小的獎勵則沒有,。結(jié)果發(fā)現(xiàn),，當猴子在選擇大小兩種獎勵時，其大腦內(nèi)各有一些神經(jīng)細胞處于興奮狀態(tài),。這兩組細胞幾乎混雜在一起,，但在猴子選擇小獎勵的時候，pACC的某一塊區(qū)域中會有更多的神經(jīng)細胞處于興奮狀態(tài),。如果對這些細胞進行電流刺激的話,，猴子將更有可能選擇小獎勵，但這時讓猴子服用抗焦慮藥物的話,，電流刺激的作用將受到阻礙,。
患有焦慮癥和抑郁癥的人通常在面對成本效益交易時，具有選擇障礙,。該研究結(jié)果意味著,，pACC在對決策過程中消極和焦慮情緒的控制調(diào)節(jié)方面起著關鍵作用。（生物谷Bioon.com）
doi:10.1038/nn.3088
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Localized microstimulation of primate pregenual cingulate cortex induces negative decision-making
Ken-ichi Amemori & Ann M Graybiel
The pregenual anterior cingulate cortex (pACC) has been implicated in human anxiety disorders and depression, but the circuit-level mechanisms underlying these disorders are unclear. In healthy individuals, the pACC is involved in cost-benefit evaluation. We developed a macaque version of an approach-avoidance decision task used to evaluate anxiety and depression in humans and, with multi-electrode recording and cortical microstimulation, we probed pACC function as monkeys performed this task. We found that the macaque pACC has an opponent process-like organization of neurons representing motivationally positive and negative subjective value. Spatial distribution of these two neuronal populations overlapped in the pACC, except in one subzone, where neurons with negative coding were more numerous. Notably, microstimulation in this subzone, but not elsewhere in the pACC, increased negative decision-making, and this negative biasing was blocked by anti-anxiety drug treatment. This cortical zone could be critical for regulating negative emotional valence and anxiety in decision-making.
