人类恐惧记忆研究：早期视觉皮层去抑制是长期恐惧记忆的必要机制 脑刺激可打断记忆巩固
《自然·通讯》11月14日发表一项人类恐惧记忆研究，题为《感觉皮层去抑制是人类长期恐惧记忆的基础》。短暂的威胁如何转化为持久的长期恐惧记忆，是神经科学的一个基本问题，其机制此前尚不清楚。
研究团队把高清 α 频率经颅交流电刺激与同步脑电—功能性磁共振成像以及基于 Transformer 的神经解码结合，在恐惧条件化的形成、巩固和长期保持三个阶段追踪记忆，评估时点为条件化后15分钟、24小时和7天。
研究在三个评估时点都识别出时空记忆痕迹，痕迹始于刺激后40至60毫秒的早期感觉阶段，并分布于视觉皮层和边缘区域。条件化增强了枕叶 α 振荡去同步化，这是视觉皮层去抑制的标志，该指标随后可预测长期记忆痕迹的强度。
关键实验显示，对早期视觉皮层施加定向 α 经颅交流电刺激，会诱导 V1/V2 抑制、消除条件化增强的 α 去同步化，并选择性破坏恐惧记忆的巩固与保持，而不影响最初的习得。作者据此提出，感觉皮层去抑制是人类长期恐惧记忆的必要机制，早期感觉皮层是干预持续性适应不良恐惧的关键节点。该研究获美国国立卫生研究院 R21MH126479 与 R01MH132209 资助，作者包括 Brown、Ma、Wang 等研究人员。
Human Study Finds Early Visual Cortex Disinhibition Necessary for Long-Term Fear Memory
Nature Communications on November 14 published a human fear-memory study titled 'Sensory cortical disinhibition underlies long-term fear memory in humans'. How transient threats turn into persistent, long-term fear memories is a fundamental problem in neuroscience, and the underlying mechanisms had remained elusive.
The team combined high-definition α-frequency transcranial alternating current stimulation (HD α-tACS) with simultaneous EEG-fMRI and transformer-based neural decoding, tracking fear memory across formation, consolidation, and long-term retention, assessed at 15 minutes, 24 hours, and 7 days after fear conditioning.
Spatiotemporal memory traces were identified at all three assessments, beginning at an early sensory stage 40 to 60 milliseconds post-stimulus and distributed across visual cortex and limbic regions. Conditioning potentiated occipital α-oscillation desynchronization, a marker of visual cortical disinhibition, which subsequently predicted the strength of long-term memory traces.
Targeted α-tACS over early visual cortex induced early visual cortical (V1/V2) inhibition, abolished conditioning-potentiated α desynchronization, and selectively disrupted fear-memory consolidation and retention while leaving initial acquisition intact. The authors conclude that sensory cortical disinhibition is a necessary mechanism for long-term fear memory in humans and identify early sensory cortex as a crucial node for intervention in persistent maladaptive fear. The research was supported by National Institutes of Health grants R21MH126479 and R01MH132209, and the authors include Brown, Ma and Wang.
来源：《自然·通讯》
发布：GSM·美国（发布链接）
图片来源：图：功能性磁共振成像（fMRI）显示的面孔敏感脑区（资料图）。来源：Richard J. Harris、Andrew W. Young、Timothy J. Andrews，Wikimedia Commons，CC BY 3.0。 / Photo: Face-sensitive brain regions shown by functional MRI (file image). Source: Richard J. Harris, Andrew W. Young and Timothy J. Andrews, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0.
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