美国哈佛医学院神经生物系David D. Ginty团队近期取得重要工作进展，他们研究提出，听觉中脑介导触觉振动感知。相关研究成果2024年12月18日在线发表于《细胞》杂志上。

据介绍，振动在自然界中无处不在，塑造了整个动物王国的行为。对于哺乳动物来说，作用在身体上的机械振动由皮肤和深层组织的机械感受器检测到，并由体感系统处理，而穿过空气的声波被耳蜗捕获并在听觉系统中编码。

研究人员发现，身体的Pacinian小体神经元检测到的机械振动，其特征是能够携带高频（40-1000Hz）的环境振动，主要由中脑下丘（LCIC）外侧皮层中的神经元编码。大多数LCIC神经元接收会聚的Pacinian和听觉输入，并且对一致的触觉听觉刺激的反应比对单独的任何一种方式都更强烈。

此外，对高频机械振动的行为反应需要LCIC。因此，Pacinian小体捕获的环境振动在听觉中脑内编码，以调节行为。

附：英文原文

Title: The auditory midbrain mediates tactile vibration sensing

Author: Erica L. Huey, Josef Turecek, Michelle M. Delisle, Ofer Mazor, Gabriel E. Romero, Malvika Dua, Zoe K. Sarafis, Alexis Hobble, Kevin T. Booth, Lisa V. Goodrich, David P. Corey, David D. Ginty

Issue&Volume: 2024-12-18

Abstract: Vibrations are ubiquitous in nature, shaping behavior across the animal kingdom. For mammals, mechanical vibrations acting on the body are detected by mechanoreceptors of the skin and deep tissues and processed by the somatosensory system, while sound waves traveling through air are captured by the cochlea and encoded in the auditory system. Here, we report that mechanical vibrations detected by the body’s Pacinian corpuscle neurons, which are distinguished by their ability to entrain to high-frequency (40–1,000 Hz) environmental vibrations, are prominently encoded by neurons in the lateral cortex of the inferior colliculus (LCIC) of the midbrain. Remarkably, most LCIC neurons receive convergent Pacinian and auditory input and respond more strongly to coincident tactile-auditory stimulation than to either modality alone. Moreover, the LCIC is required for behavioral responses to high-frequency mechanical vibrations. Thus, environmental vibrations captured by Pacinian corpuscles are encoded in the auditory midbrain to mediate behavior.

DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2024.11.014

Source: https://www.cell.com/cell/abstract/S0092-8674(24)01331-X