霍华德休斯医学研究所Misha B. Ahrens小组宣布他们发现了神经胶质积累的证据表明，行动抑制不成功的行为。 相关论文于2019年6月20日发表于国际顶尖学术期刊《细胞》杂志上。

研究者促使幼体斑马鱼在虚拟现实中游泳，视觉反馈被去除，这样游泳的尝试就不能触发预期的视觉信号。经过几十秒这样的徒劳运动之后，动物们变得消极了。全脑钙成像显示，去甲肾上腺素能神经元对游泳失败有特殊反应，放射状星形胶质细胞的钙水平随着失败次数的增加而累积。课题组研究人员通过细胞消融术和光遗传学或化学遗传学激活，发现去甲肾上腺素能神经元逐渐激活脑干放射状星形胶质细胞，进而抑制游泳。因此，放射状星形胶质细胞对行为起着至关重要的计算作用:它们积累了当前行为无效的证据，从而推动行为状态的改变。

据介绍，当一种行为反复多次未能达到它的目标时，动物往往会放弃，变得消极被动，这对于保存能量或在尝试之间重新部署，具有战略性意义。目前还不清楚大脑是如何识别行为失败并调节这种行为状态转换的。

附：英文原文

Title: Glia Accumulate Evidence that Actions Are Futile and Suppress Unsuccessful Behavior

Author: Yu Mu, Davis V. Bennett, Mikail Rubinov, Sujatha Narayan, Chao-Tsung Yang, Masashi Tanimoto, Brett D. Mensh, Loren L. Looger, Misha B. Ahrens

Issue&Volume:Jun 27, 2019 Volume 178Issue 1

Abstract: When a behavior repeatedly fails to achieve its goal, animals often give up and become passive, which can be strategic for preserving energy or regrouping between attempts. It is unknown how the brain identifies behavioral failures and mediates this behavioral-state switch. In larval zebrafish swimming in virtual reality, visual feedback can be withheld so that swim attempts fail to trigger expected visual flow. After tens of seconds of such motor futility, animals became passive for similar durations. Whole-brain calcium imaging revealed noradrenergic neurons that responded specifically to failed swim attempts and radial astrocytes whose calcium levels accumulated with increasing numbers of failed attempts. Using cell ablation and optogenetic or chemogenetic activation, we found that noradrenergic neurons progressively activated brainstem radial astrocytes, which then suppressed swimming. Thus, radial astrocytes perform a computation critical for behavior: they accumulate evidence that current actions are ineffective and consequently drive changes in behavioral states.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2019.05.050

Source: https://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(19)30621-X