文章基本信息

标题：Inhibition-excitation balance in the parietal cortex modulates volitional control for auditory and visual multistability
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作者：Hirohito M. Kondo ; Daniel Pressnitzer ; Yasuhiro Shimada 等
期刊名称：Scientific Reports
电子版ISSN：2045-2322
出版年度：2018
卷号：8
期号：1
页码：14548
DOI：10.1038/s41598-018-32892-3
语种：English
出版社：Springer Nature
摘要：Perceptual organisation must select one interpretation from several alternatives to guide behaviour. Computational models suggest that this could be achieved through an interplay between inhibition and excitation across competing types of neural population coding for each interpretation. Here, to test for such models, we used magnetic resonance spectroscopy to measure non-invasively the concentrations of inhibitory γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) and excitatory glutamate-glutamine (Glx) in several brain regions. Human participants first performed auditory and visual multistability tasks that produced spontaneous switching between percepts. Then, we observed that longer percept durations during behaviour were associated with higher GABA/Glx ratios in the sensory area coding for each modality. When participants were asked to voluntarily modulate their perception, a common factor across modalities emerged: the GABA/Glx ratio in the posterior parietal cortex tended to be positively correlated with the amount of effective volitional control. Our results provide direct evidence implicating that the balance between neural inhibition and excitation within sensory regions resolves perceptual competition. This powerful computational principle appears to be leveraged by both audition and vision, implemented independently across modalities, but modulated by an integrated control process.