探索大脑神经元如何产生意识，发现特定受体或关键机制
Do psychic cells generate consciousness?
- 聚焦锥体神经元的树突受体，揭示意识丧失时反馈信号中断机制
- 发现代谢型受体在意识调控中起核心作用，与麻醉效应相关
- 为百年来‘精神细胞’是否生成意识提供现代科学验证可能
过去几十年的技术进步使神经科学家得以前所未有的方式探讨意识的本质问题。本文综述了近年来在脑内意识加工的细胞层面机制方面的显著进展。特别关注的是皮层锥体神经元——即拉蒙·卡哈尔一百多年前所称的“精神细胞”——其具有独特细胞机制，可在麻醉导致意识消失时选择性破坏脑内反馈信号。关键在于，分布于锥体细胞树突上的特定一类代谢型受体被突出强调为这一过程的核心细胞机制。由此可见，卡哈尔百年前的直觉或许正在得到证实：我们或许刚刚开始理解，精神细胞是否以及如何生成并调控我们的意识。
原文摘要 · Abstract (English)
Technological advances in the past decades have begun to enable neuroscientists to address fundamental questions about consciousness in an unprecedented way. Here we review remarkable recent progress in our understanding of cellular-level mechanisms of conscious processing in the brain. Of particular interest are the cortical pyramidal neurons -- or "psychic cells" called by Ramón y Cajal more than 100 years ago -- which have an intriguing cellular mechanism that accounts for selective disruption of feedback signaling in the brain upon anesthetic-induced loss of consciousness. Importantly, a particular class of metabotropic receptors distributed over the dendrites of pyramidal cells are highlighted as the key cellular mechanism. After all, Cajal's instinct over a century ago may turn out to be correct -- we may have just begun to understand whether and how psychic cells indeed generate and control our consciousness.
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