1
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Silva A, Carriço P, Fernandes AB, Saraiva T, Oliveira-Maia AJ, da Silva JA. High-Precision Optical Fiber-Based Lickometer. eNeuro 2024; 11:ENEURO.0189-24.2024. [PMID: 39025674 PMCID: PMC11258538 DOI: 10.1523/eneuro.0189-24.2024] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/01/2024] [Revised: 05/20/2024] [Accepted: 05/22/2024] [Indexed: 07/20/2024] Open
Abstract
Quantifying and analyzing licking behavior can offer valuable insights into fundamental neurobiological mechanisms controlling animal consummatory behaviors. Lickometers are typically based on electrical properties, a strategy that comes with limitations, including susceptibility to electrical interference and generation of electrical disturbances in electrophysiological measurements. While optical lickometers offer an alternative method to measure licks and quantify fluid intake in animals, they are prone to false readings and susceptibility to outside light sources. To overcome this problem, we propose a low-cost open-source lickometer that combines a restricted infrared beam defined by optical fibers, with a poke design that allows easy access to the tongue while limiting access of other body parts and external light sources. This device also includes features for detecting nose pokes and presenting visual cues during behavioral tasks. We provide validation experiments that demonstrate the optical lickometer's reliability, high-sensitivity and precision, and its application in a behavioral task, showcasing the potential of this tool to study lick microstructure in combination with other techniques, such as imaging of neural activity, in freely moving mice.
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Affiliation(s)
- Artur Silva
- Champalimaud Research, Champalimaud Foundation, 1400-038 Lisbon, Portugal
| | - Paulo Carriço
- Champalimaud Research, Champalimaud Foundation, 1400-038 Lisbon, Portugal
| | - Ana B Fernandes
- Champalimaud Research, Champalimaud Foundation, 1400-038 Lisbon, Portugal
- NOVA Medical School, Faculdade de Ciências Médicas da Universidade Nova de Lisboa, 1169-056 Lisbon, Portugal
| | - Tatiana Saraiva
- Champalimaud Research, Champalimaud Foundation, 1400-038 Lisbon, Portugal
- Department of Neurology, University Hospital of Würzburg, 97080 Würzburg, Germany
| | - Albino J Oliveira-Maia
- Champalimaud Research, Champalimaud Foundation, 1400-038 Lisbon, Portugal
- NOVA Medical School, Faculdade de Ciências Médicas da Universidade Nova de Lisboa, 1169-056 Lisbon, Portugal
- Champalimaud Clinical Centre, Champalimaud Foundation, 1400-038 Lisbon, Portugal
| | - Joaquim Alves da Silva
- Champalimaud Research, Champalimaud Foundation, 1400-038 Lisbon, Portugal
- NOVA Medical School, Faculdade de Ciências Médicas da Universidade Nova de Lisboa, 1169-056 Lisbon, Portugal
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2
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Sharma H, Azouz R. Reliability and stability of tactile perception in the whisker somatosensory system. Front Neurosci 2024; 18:1344758. [PMID: 38872944 PMCID: PMC11169650 DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2024.1344758] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/26/2023] [Accepted: 05/14/2024] [Indexed: 06/15/2024] Open
Abstract
Rodents rely on their whiskers as vital sensory tools for tactile perception, enabling them to distinguish textures and shapes. Ensuring the reliability and constancy of tactile perception under varying stimulus conditions remains a fascinating and fundamental inquiry. This study explores the impact of stimulus configurations, including whisker movement velocity and object spatial proximity, on texture discrimination and stability in rats. To address this issue, we employed three distinct approaches for our investigation. Stimulus configurations notably affected tactile inputs, altering whisker vibration's kinetic and kinematic aspects with consistent effects across various textures. Through a texture discrimination task, rats exhibited consistent discrimination performance irrespective of changes in stimulus configuration. However, alterations in stimulus configuration significantly affected the rats' ability to maintain stability in texture perception. Additionally, we investigated the influence of stimulus configurations on cortical neuronal responses by manipulating them experimentally. Notably, cortical neurons demonstrated substantial and intricate changes in firing rates without compromising the ability to discriminate between textures. Nevertheless, these changes resulted in a reduction in texture neuronal response stability. Stimulating multiple whiskers led to improved neuronal texture discrimination and maintained coding stability. These findings emphasize the importance of considering numerous factors and their interactions when studying the impact of stimulus configuration on neuronal responses and behavior.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Rony Azouz
- Department of Physiology and Cell Biology, Zlotowski Center for Neuroscience, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Be’er Sheva, Israel
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3
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Finkel EA, Chang YT, Dasgupta R, Lubin EE, Xu D, Minamisawa G, Chang AJ, Cohen JY, O'Connor DH. Tactile processing in mouse cortex depends on action context. Cell Rep 2024; 43:113991. [PMID: 38573855 PMCID: PMC11097894 DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2024.113991] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/11/2019] [Revised: 12/08/2023] [Accepted: 03/07/2024] [Indexed: 04/06/2024] Open
Abstract
The brain receives constant tactile input, but only a subset guides ongoing behavior. Actions associated with tactile stimuli thus endow them with behavioral relevance. It remains unclear how the relevance of tactile stimuli affects processing in the somatosensory (S1) cortex. We developed a cross-modal selection task in which head-fixed mice switched between responding to tactile stimuli in the presence of visual distractors or to visual stimuli in the presence of tactile distractors using licking movements to the left or right side in different blocks of trials. S1 spiking encoded tactile stimuli, licking actions, and direction of licking in response to tactile but not visual stimuli. Bidirectional optogenetic manipulations showed that sensory-motor activity in S1 guided behavior when touch but not vision was relevant. Our results show that S1 activity and its impact on behavior depend on the actions associated with a tactile stimulus.
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Affiliation(s)
- Eric A Finkel
- Solomon H. Snyder Department of Neuroscience, Krieger Mind/Brain Institute, Kavli Neuroscience Discovery Institute, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA
| | - Yi-Ting Chang
- Solomon H. Snyder Department of Neuroscience, Krieger Mind/Brain Institute, Kavli Neuroscience Discovery Institute, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA
| | - Rajan Dasgupta
- Solomon H. Snyder Department of Neuroscience, Krieger Mind/Brain Institute, Kavli Neuroscience Discovery Institute, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA
| | - Emily E Lubin
- Solomon H. Snyder Department of Neuroscience, Krieger Mind/Brain Institute, Kavli Neuroscience Discovery Institute, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA
| | - Duo Xu
- Solomon H. Snyder Department of Neuroscience, Krieger Mind/Brain Institute, Kavli Neuroscience Discovery Institute, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA
| | - Genki Minamisawa
- Solomon H. Snyder Department of Neuroscience, Krieger Mind/Brain Institute, Kavli Neuroscience Discovery Institute, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA
| | - Anna J Chang
- Solomon H. Snyder Department of Neuroscience, Krieger Mind/Brain Institute, Kavli Neuroscience Discovery Institute, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA
| | - Jeremiah Y Cohen
- Solomon H. Snyder Department of Neuroscience, Krieger Mind/Brain Institute, Kavli Neuroscience Discovery Institute, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA
| | - Daniel H O'Connor
- Solomon H. Snyder Department of Neuroscience, Krieger Mind/Brain Institute, Kavli Neuroscience Discovery Institute, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA.
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4
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Sharma H, Azouz R. Global and local neuronal coding of tactile information in the barrel cortex. Front Neurosci 2024; 17:1291864. [PMID: 38249584 PMCID: PMC10796699 DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2023.1291864] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/10/2023] [Accepted: 11/24/2023] [Indexed: 01/23/2024] Open
Abstract
During tactile sensation in rodents, the whisker movements across surfaces give rise to intricate whisker motions that encompass discrete and transient stick-slip events, effectively conveying valuable information regarding surface properties. These surface characteristics are transformed into cortical neuronal responses. This study examined the coding strategies underlying these transformations in rat whiskers. We found that changes in surface coarseness modified the number and magnitude of stick-slip events, which in turn both modulated properties of neuronal responses. Global changes in the number of stick-slip events primarily affected neuronal discharge rates and the degree of neuronal synchronization. In contrast, local changes in the magnitude of stick-slip events affected the transformation of these kinematic and kinetic characteristics into neuronal discharges. Most cortical neurons exhibited surface coarseness selectivity through global and local stick-slip event properties. However, this selectivity varied across coding strategies in the same neurons, given that each coding strategy reflected different aspects of changes in whisker-surface interactions. The degree of spatial similarity in surface coarseness preference in adjacently recorded neurons differed among these coding strategies. Adjacently recorded neurons exhibited the same surface coarseness preference in their firing rates but not through other coding strategies. Through these results, we were able to show that local stick-slip event properties contribute to texture discrimination, complementing and surpassing global coding in this context. These findings suggest that the representation of surface coarseness in the cortex may rely on concurrent coding strategies that integrate tactile information across different spatiotemporal scales.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Rony Azouz
- Department of Physiology and Cell Biology, Zlotowski Center for Neuroscience, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Be'er Sheva, Southern District, Israel
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5
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Chinta S, Pluta SR. Neural mechanisms for the localization of unexpected external motion. Nat Commun 2023; 14:6112. [PMID: 37777516 PMCID: PMC10542789 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-41755-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/10/2023] [Accepted: 09/15/2023] [Indexed: 10/02/2023] Open
Abstract
To localize objects during active sensing, animals must differentiate stimuli caused by volitional movement from real-world object motion. To determine a neural basis for this ability, we examined the mouse superior colliculus (SC), which contains multiple egocentric maps of sensorimotor space. By placing mice in a whisker-guided virtual reality, we discovered a rapidly adapting tactile response that transiently emerged during externally generated gains in whisker contact. Responses to self-generated touch that matched self-generated history were significantly attenuated, revealing that transient response magnitude is controlled by sensorimotor predictions. The magnitude of the transient response gradually decreased with repetitions in external motion, revealing a slow habituation based on external history. The direction of external motion was accurately encoded in the firing rates of transiently responsive neurons. These data reveal that whisker-specific adaptation and sensorimotor predictions in SC neurons enhance the localization of unexpected, externally generated changes in tactile space.
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Affiliation(s)
- Suma Chinta
- Department of Biological Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA
- Purdue Institute for Integrative Neuroscience, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA
| | - Scott R Pluta
- Department of Biological Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA.
- Purdue Institute for Integrative Neuroscience, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA.
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6
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Ding Y, Vlasov Y. Pre-neuronal processing of haptic sensory cues via dispersive high-frequency vibrational modes. Sci Rep 2023; 13:14370. [PMID: 37658126 PMCID: PMC10474056 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-40675-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/05/2023] [Accepted: 08/16/2023] [Indexed: 09/03/2023] Open
Abstract
Sense of touch is one of the major perception channels. Neural coding of object textures conveyed by rodents' whiskers has been a model to study early stages of haptic information uptake. While high-precision spike timing has been observed during whisker sweeping across textured surfaces, the exact nature of whisker micromotions that spikes encode remains elusive. Here, we discovered that a single micro-collision of a whisker with surface features generates vibrational eigenmodes spanning frequencies up to 10 kHz. While propagating along the whisker, these high-frequency modes can carry up to 80% of shockwave energy, exhibit 100× smaller damping ratio, and arrive at the follicle 10× faster than low frequency components. The mechano-transduction of these energy bursts into time-sequenced population spike trains may generate temporally unique "bar code" with ultra-high information capacity. This hypothesis of pre-neuronal processing of haptic signals based on dispersive temporal separation of the vibrational modal frequencies can shed light on neural coding of haptic signals in many whisker-like sensory organs across the animal world as well as in texture perception in primate's glabrous skin.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yu Ding
- Department of Physics, University of Illinois Urbana Champaign, 208 North Wright Street, Urbana, IL, 61801, USA
| | - Yurii Vlasov
- Department of Physics, University of Illinois Urbana Champaign, 208 North Wright Street, Urbana, IL, 61801, USA.
- Department of BioEngineering, University of Illinois Urbana Champaign, 208 North Wright Street, Urbana, IL, 61801, USA.
- Carle Illinois College of Medicine, University of Illinois Urbana Champaign, 208 North Wright Street, Urbana, IL, 61801, USA.
- Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Illinois Urbana Champaign, 208 North Wright Street, Urbana, IL, 61801, USA.
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7
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Scheuer KS, Judge JM, Zhao X, Jackson MB. Velocity of conduction between columns and layers in barrel cortex reported by parvalbumin interneurons. Cereb Cortex 2023; 33:9917-9926. [PMID: 37415260 PMCID: PMC10656945 DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhad254] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/05/2023] [Revised: 06/21/2023] [Accepted: 06/22/2023] [Indexed: 07/08/2023] Open
Abstract
Inhibitory interneurons expressing parvalbumin (PV) play critical roles throughout the brain. Their rapid spiking enables them to control circuit dynamics on a millisecond time scale, and the timing of their activation by different excitatory pathways is critical to these functions. We used a genetically encoded hybrid voltage sensor to image PV interneuron voltage changes with sub-millisecond precision in primary somatosensory barrel cortex (BC) of adult mice. Electrical stimulation evoked depolarizations with a latency that increased with distance from the stimulating electrode, allowing us to determine conduction velocity. Spread of responses between cortical layers yielded an interlaminar conduction velocity and spread within layers yielded intralaminar conduction velocities in different layers. Velocities ranged from 74 to 473 μm/ms depending on trajectory; interlaminar conduction was 71% faster than intralaminar conduction. Thus, computations within columns are more rapid than between columns. The BC integrates thalamic and intracortical input for functions such as texture discrimination and sensory tuning. Timing differences between intra- and interlaminar PV interneuron activation could impact these functions. Imaging of voltage in PV interneurons reveals differences in signaling dynamics within cortical circuitry. This approach offers a unique opportunity to investigate conduction in populations of axons based on their targeting specificity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Katherine S Scheuer
- Cellular and Molecular Biology Program, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53705, United States
| | - John M Judge
- Biophysics Program, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53705, United States
| | - Xinyu Zhao
- Waisman Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53705, United States
- Department of Neuroscience, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53705, United States
| | - Meyer B Jackson
- Department of Neuroscience, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53705, United States
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8
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Angeloni CF, Młynarski W, Piasini E, Williams AM, Wood KC, Garami L, Hermundstad AM, Geffen MN. Dynamics of cortical contrast adaptation predict perception of signals in noise. Nat Commun 2023; 14:4817. [PMID: 37558677 PMCID: PMC10412650 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-40477-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/01/2022] [Accepted: 07/27/2023] [Indexed: 08/11/2023] Open
Abstract
Neurons throughout the sensory pathway adapt their responses depending on the statistical structure of the sensory environment. Contrast gain control is a form of adaptation in the auditory cortex, but it is unclear whether the dynamics of gain control reflect efficient adaptation, and whether they shape behavioral perception. Here, we trained mice to detect a target presented in background noise shortly after a change in the contrast of the background. The observed changes in cortical gain and behavioral detection followed the dynamics of a normative model of efficient contrast gain control; specifically, target detection and sensitivity improved slowly in low contrast, but degraded rapidly in high contrast. Auditory cortex was required for this task, and cortical responses were not only similarly affected by contrast but predicted variability in behavioral performance. Combined, our results demonstrate that dynamic gain adaptation supports efficient coding in auditory cortex and predicts the perception of sounds in noise.
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Affiliation(s)
- Christopher F Angeloni
- Psychology Graduate Group, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
- Department of Otorhinolaryngology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
| | - Wiktor Młynarski
- Faculty of Biology, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Munich, Germany
- Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience, Munich, Germany
| | - Eugenio Piasini
- International School for Advanced Studies (SISSA), Trieste, Italy
| | - Aaron M Williams
- Department of Otorhinolaryngology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
- Neuroscience Graduate Group, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
| | - Katherine C Wood
- Department of Otorhinolaryngology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
| | - Linda Garami
- Department of Otorhinolaryngology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
| | - Ann M Hermundstad
- Janelia Research Campus, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Ashburn, VA, USA
| | - Maria N Geffen
- Department of Otorhinolaryngology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
- Neuroscience Graduate Group, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
- Department of Neuroscience, Department of Neurology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
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9
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De La Crompe B, Schneck M, Steenbergen F, Schneider A, Diester I. FreiBox: A Versatile Open-Source Behavioral Setup for Investigating the Neuronal Correlates of Behavioral Flexibility via 1-Photon Imaging in Freely Moving Mice. eNeuro 2023; 10:10/4/ENEURO.0469-22.2023. [PMID: 37105720 PMCID: PMC10166259 DOI: 10.1523/eneuro.0469-22.2023] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/16/2022] [Revised: 03/16/2023] [Accepted: 03/20/2023] [Indexed: 04/29/2023] Open
Abstract
To survive in a complex and changing environment, animals must adapt their behavior. This ability is called behavioral flexibility and is classically evaluated by a reversal learning paradigm. During such a paradigm, the animals adapt their behavior according to a change of the reward contingencies. To study these complex cognitive functions (from outcome evaluation to motor adaptation), we developed a versatile, low-cost, open-source platform, allowing us to investigate the neuronal correlates of behavioral flexibility with 1-photon calcium imaging. This platform consists of FreiBox, a novel low-cost Arduino behavioral setup, as well as further open-source tools, which we developed and integrated into our framework. FreiBox is controlled by a custom Python interface and integrates a new licking sensor (strain gauge lickometer) for controlling spatial licking behavioral tasks. In addition to allowing both discriminative and serial reversal learning, the Arduino can track mouse licking behavior in real time to control task events in a submillisecond timescale. To complete our setup, we also developed and validated an affordable commutator, which is crucial for recording calcium imaging with the Miniscope V4 in freely moving mice. Further, we demonstrated that FreiBox can be associated with 1-photon imaging and other open-source initiatives (e.g., Open Ephys) to form a versatile platform for exploring the neuronal substrates of licking-based behavioral flexibility in mice. The combination of the FreiBox behavioral setup and our low-cost commutator represents a highly competitive and complementary addition to the recently emerging battery of open-source initiatives.
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Affiliation(s)
- Brice De La Crompe
- Optophysiology-Optogenetics and Neurophysiology, University of Freiburg, 79110 Freiburg, Germany
- Institute of Biology III, Faculty of Biology, University of Freiburg, 79104 Freiburg, Germany
- Intelligent Machine-Brain Interfacing Technology (IMBIT)-BrainLinks-BrainTools, University of Freiburg, 79110 Freiburg, Germany
| | - Megan Schneck
- Optophysiology-Optogenetics and Neurophysiology, University of Freiburg, 79110 Freiburg, Germany
- Institute of Biology III, Faculty of Biology, University of Freiburg, 79104 Freiburg, Germany
- Intelligent Machine-Brain Interfacing Technology (IMBIT)-BrainLinks-BrainTools, University of Freiburg, 79110 Freiburg, Germany
| | - Florian Steenbergen
- Optophysiology-Optogenetics and Neurophysiology, University of Freiburg, 79110 Freiburg, Germany
- Institute of Biology III, Faculty of Biology, University of Freiburg, 79104 Freiburg, Germany
- Intelligent Machine-Brain Interfacing Technology (IMBIT)-BrainLinks-BrainTools, University of Freiburg, 79110 Freiburg, Germany
| | - Artur Schneider
- Optophysiology-Optogenetics and Neurophysiology, University of Freiburg, 79110 Freiburg, Germany
- Institute of Biology III, Faculty of Biology, University of Freiburg, 79104 Freiburg, Germany
- Intelligent Machine-Brain Interfacing Technology (IMBIT)-BrainLinks-BrainTools, University of Freiburg, 79110 Freiburg, Germany
| | - Ilka Diester
- Optophysiology-Optogenetics and Neurophysiology, University of Freiburg, 79110 Freiburg, Germany
- Institute of Biology III, Faculty of Biology, University of Freiburg, 79104 Freiburg, Germany
- Intelligent Machine-Brain Interfacing Technology (IMBIT)-BrainLinks-BrainTools, University of Freiburg, 79110 Freiburg, Germany
- Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience, University of Freiburg, 79104 Freiburg, Germany
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10
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Golomb D, Moore JD, Fassihi A, Takatoh J, Prevosto V, Wang F, Kleinfeld D. Theory of hierarchically organized neuronal oscillator dynamics that mediate rodent rhythmic whisking. Neuron 2022; 110:3833-3851.e22. [PMID: 36113472 PMCID: PMC10248719 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2022.08.020] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/21/2022] [Revised: 07/06/2022] [Accepted: 08/17/2022] [Indexed: 12/15/2022]
Abstract
Rodents explore their environment through coordinated orofacial motor actions, including whisking. Whisking can free-run via an oscillator of inhibitory neurons in the medulla and can be paced by breathing. Yet, the mechanics of the whisking oscillator and its interaction with breathing remain to be understood. We formulate and solve a hierarchical model of the whisking circuit. The first whisk within a breathing cycle is generated by inhalation, which resets a vibrissa oscillator circuit, while subsequent whisks are derived from the oscillator circuit. Our model posits, consistent with experiment, that there are two subpopulations of oscillator neurons. Stronger connections between the subpopulations support rhythmicity, while connections within each subpopulation induce variable spike timing that enhances the dynamic range of rhythm generation. Calculated cycle-to-cycle changes in whisking are consistent with experiment. Our model provides a computational framework to support longstanding observations of concurrent autonomous and driven rhythmic motor actions that comprise behaviors.
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Affiliation(s)
- David Golomb
- Department of Physiology and Cell Biology, Ben Gurion University, Be'er-Sheva 8410501, Israel; Department of Physics, Ben Gurion University, Be'er-Sheva 8410501, Israel; Zlotowski Center for Neuroscience, Ben Gurion University, Be'er-Sheva 8410501, Israel.
| | - Jeffrey D Moore
- Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Arash Fassihi
- Department of Physics, University of California at San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA
| | - Jun Takatoh
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
| | - Vincent Prevosto
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
| | - Fan Wang
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA; McGovern Institute, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
| | - David Kleinfeld
- Department of Physics, University of California at San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA; Department of Neurobiology, University of California at San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA.
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11
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Sharma H, Azouz R. Coexisting neuronal coding strategies in the barrel cortex. Cereb Cortex 2022; 32:4986-5004. [PMID: 35149866 DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhab527] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/11/2021] [Revised: 12/19/2021] [Accepted: 12/20/2021] [Indexed: 12/27/2022] Open
Abstract
During tactile sensation by rodents, whisker movements across surfaces generate complex whisker motions, including discrete, transient stick-slip events, which carry information about surface properties. The characteristics of these events and how the brain encodes this tactile information remain enigmatic. We found that cortical neurons show a mixture of synchronized and nontemporally correlated spikes in their tactile responses. Synchronous spikes convey the magnitude of stick-slip events by numerous aspects of temporal coding. These spikes show preferential selectivity for kinetic and kinematic whisker motion. By contrast, asynchronous spikes in each neuron convey the magnitude of stick-slip events by their discharge rates, response probability, and interspike intervals. We further show that the differentiation between these two types of activity is highly dependent on the magnitude of stick-slip events and stimulus and response history. These results suggest that cortical neurons transmit multiple components of tactile information through numerous coding strategies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hariom Sharma
- Department of Physiology and Cell Biology, Zlotowski Center for Neuroscience, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva, Israel
| | - Rony Azouz
- Department of Physiology and Cell Biology, Zlotowski Center for Neuroscience, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva, Israel
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12
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Rodgers CC. A detailed behavioral, videographic, and neural dataset on object recognition in mice. Sci Data 2022; 9:620. [PMID: 36229608 PMCID: PMC9561117 DOI: 10.1038/s41597-022-01728-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/16/2022] [Accepted: 09/12/2022] [Indexed: 11/09/2022] Open
Abstract
Mice adeptly use their whiskers to touch, recognize, and learn about objects in their environment. This behavior is enabled by computations performed by populations of neurons in the somatosensory cortex. To understand these computations, we trained mice to use their whiskers to recognize different shapes while we recorded activity in the barrel cortex, which processes whisker input. Here, we present a large dataset of high-speed video of the whiskers, along with rigorous tracking of the entire extent of multiple whiskers and every contact they made on the shape. We used spike sorting to identify individual neurons, which responded with precise timing to whisker contacts and motion. These data will be useful for understanding the behavioral strategies mice use to explore objects, as well as the neuronal dynamics that mediate those strategies. In addition, our carefully curated labeled data could be used to develop new computer vision algorithms for tracking body posture, or for extracting responses of individual neurons from large-scale neural recordings.
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Affiliation(s)
- Chris C Rodgers
- Department of Neurosurgery, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, 30322, USA.
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13
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Connectomic analysis of thalamus-driven disinhibition in cortical layer 4. Cell Rep 2022; 41:111476. [DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2022.111476] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/28/2022] [Revised: 07/29/2022] [Accepted: 09/19/2022] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
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14
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Learning-related congruent and incongruent changes of excitation and inhibition in distinct cortical areas. PLoS Biol 2022; 20:e3001667. [PMID: 35639787 PMCID: PMC9187120 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3001667] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/14/2021] [Revised: 06/10/2022] [Accepted: 05/10/2022] [Indexed: 12/20/2022] Open
Abstract
Excitatory and inhibitory neurons in diverse cortical regions are likely to contribute differentially to the transformation of sensory information into goal-directed motor plans. Here, we investigate the relative changes across mouse sensorimotor cortex in the activity of putative excitatory and inhibitory neurons—categorized as regular spiking (RS) or fast spiking (FS) according to their action potential (AP) waveform—comparing before and after learning of a whisker detection task with delayed licking as perceptual report. Surprisingly, we found that the whisker-evoked activity of RS versus FS neurons changed in opposite directions after learning in primary and secondary whisker motor cortices, while it changed similarly in primary and secondary orofacial motor cortices. Our results suggest that changes in the balance of excitation and inhibition in local circuits concurrent with changes in the long-range synaptic inputs in distinct cortical regions might contribute to performance of delayed sensory-to-motor transformation. A study of mouse sensorimotor cortex during a whisker detection task shows that learning of a goal-directed sensorimotor transformation is accompanied by differential changes in excitation and inhibition in distinct neocortical regions, helping to link sensory cortex and motor cortex for correct task performance.
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15
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Li H, Yang J, Yu Y, Wang W, Liu Y, Zhou M, Li Q, Yang J, Shao S, Takahashi S, Ejima Y, Wu J. Global surface features contribute to human haptic roughness estimations. Exp Brain Res 2022; 240:773-789. [PMID: 35034179 PMCID: PMC8918205 DOI: 10.1007/s00221-021-06289-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/02/2021] [Accepted: 12/08/2021] [Indexed: 12/03/2022]
Abstract
Previous studies have paid special attention to the relationship between local features (e.g., raised dots) and human roughness perception. However, the relationship between global features (e.g., curved surface) and haptic roughness perception is still unclear. In the present study, a series of roughness estimation experiments was performed to investigate how global features affect human roughness perception. In each experiment, participants were asked to estimate the roughness of a series of haptic stimuli that combined local features (raised dots) and global features (sinusoidal-like curves). Experiments were designed to reveal whether global features changed their haptic roughness estimation. Furthermore, the present study tested whether the exploration method (direct, indirect, and static) changed haptic roughness estimations and examined the contribution of global features to roughness estimations. The results showed that sinusoidal-like curved surfaces with small periods were perceived to be rougher than those with large periods, while the direction of finger movement and indirect exploration did not change this phenomenon. Furthermore, the influence of global features on roughness was modulated by local features, regardless of whether raised-dot surfaces or smooth surfaces were used. Taken together, these findings suggested that an object’s global features contribute to haptic roughness perceptions, while local features change the weight of the contribution that global features make to haptic roughness perceptions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Huazhi Li
- Graduate School of Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering in Health Systems, Okayama University, 3-1-1 Tsushima-Naka, Kita-ku, Okayama, 700-8530, Japan
| | - Jiajia Yang
- Graduate School of Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering in Health Systems, Okayama University, 3-1-1 Tsushima-Naka, Kita-ku, Okayama, 700-8530, Japan. .,Section On Functional Imaging Methods, National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, MD, USA.
| | - Yinghua Yu
- Graduate School of Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering in Health Systems, Okayama University, 3-1-1 Tsushima-Naka, Kita-ku, Okayama, 700-8530, Japan.,Section On Functional Imaging Methods, National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, MD, USA
| | - Wu Wang
- School of Psychological and Cognitive Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, China
| | - Yulong Liu
- Graduate School of Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering in Health Systems, Okayama University, 3-1-1 Tsushima-Naka, Kita-ku, Okayama, 700-8530, Japan
| | - Mengni Zhou
- Graduate School of Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering in Health Systems, Okayama University, 3-1-1 Tsushima-Naka, Kita-ku, Okayama, 700-8530, Japan
| | - Qingqing Li
- Department of Teacher Education, Wenzhou University, Wenzhou, China
| | - Jingjing Yang
- School of Computer Science and Technology, Changchun University of Science and Technology, Changchun, China
| | - Shiping Shao
- School of Social Welfare, Yonsei University, Seoul, Korea
| | - Satoshi Takahashi
- Graduate School of Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering in Health Systems, Okayama University, 3-1-1 Tsushima-Naka, Kita-ku, Okayama, 700-8530, Japan
| | - Yoshimichi Ejima
- Graduate School of Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering in Health Systems, Okayama University, 3-1-1 Tsushima-Naka, Kita-ku, Okayama, 700-8530, Japan
| | - Jinglong Wu
- Graduate School of Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering in Health Systems, Okayama University, 3-1-1 Tsushima-Naka, Kita-ku, Okayama, 700-8530, Japan.,School of Mechatronical Engineering, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing, China
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16
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Adibi M, Lampl I. Sensory Adaptation in the Whisker-Mediated Tactile System: Physiology, Theory, and Function. Front Neurosci 2021; 15:770011. [PMID: 34776857 PMCID: PMC8586522 DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2021.770011] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/03/2021] [Accepted: 09/30/2021] [Indexed: 12/03/2022] Open
Abstract
In the natural environment, organisms are constantly exposed to a continuous stream of sensory input. The dynamics of sensory input changes with organism's behaviour and environmental context. The contextual variations may induce >100-fold change in the parameters of the stimulation that an animal experiences. Thus, it is vital for the organism to adapt to the new diet of stimulation. The response properties of neurons, in turn, dynamically adjust to the prevailing properties of sensory stimulation, a process known as "neuronal adaptation." Neuronal adaptation is a ubiquitous phenomenon across all sensory modalities and occurs at different stages of processing from periphery to cortex. In spite of the wealth of research on contextual modulation and neuronal adaptation in visual and auditory systems, the neuronal and computational basis of sensory adaptation in somatosensory system is less understood. Here, we summarise the recent finding and views about the neuronal adaptation in the rodent whisker-mediated tactile system and further summarise the functional effect of neuronal adaptation on the response dynamics and encoding efficiency of neurons at single cell and population levels along the whisker-mediated touch system in rodents. Based on direct and indirect pieces of evidence presented here, we suggest sensory adaptation provides context-dependent functional mechanisms for noise reduction in sensory processing, salience processing and deviant stimulus detection, shift between integration and coincidence detection, band-pass frequency filtering, adjusting neuronal receptive fields, enhancing neural coding and improving discriminability around adapting stimuli, energy conservation, and disambiguating encoding of principal features of tactile stimuli.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mehdi Adibi
- Department of Physiology and Biomedicine Discovery Institute, Monash University, Clayton, VIC, Australia
- Department of Neuroscience and Padova Neuroscience Center (PNC), University of Padova, Padova, Italy
| | - Ilan Lampl
- Department of Brain Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
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17
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Harrell ER, Renard A, Bathellier B. Fast cortical dynamics encode tactile grating orientation during active touch. SCIENCE ADVANCES 2021; 7:eabf7096. [PMID: 34516895 PMCID: PMC8442870 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abf7096] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/03/2023]
Abstract
Touch-based object recognition relies on perception of compositional tactile features like roughness, shape, and surface orientation. However, besides roughness, it remains unclear how these different tactile features are encoded by neural activity that is linked with perception. Here, we establish a cortex-dependent perceptual task in which mice discriminate tactile gratings on the basis of orientation using only their whiskers. Multielectrode recordings in the barrel cortex reveal weak orientation tuning in average firing rates (500-ms time scale) during grating exploration despite high levels of cortical activity. Just before decision, orientation information extracted from fast cortical dynamics (100-ms time scale) more closely resembles concurrent psychophysical measurements than single neuron orientation tuning curves. This temporal code conveys both stimulus and choice/action-related information, suggesting that fast cortical dynamics during exploration of a tactile object both reflect the physical stimulus and affect the decision.
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Affiliation(s)
- Evan R. Harrell
- Department for Integrative and Computational Neuroscience (ICN), Paris-Saclay Institute of Neuroscience (NeuroPSI), UMR9197 CNRS/University Paris Sud CNRS, Building 32/33, 1 Avenue de la Terrasse, 91190 Gif-sur-Yvette, France
- Institut Pasteur, INSERM, Institut de l’Audition, 63 rue de Charenton, F-75012 Paris, France
- Corresponding author. (E.R.H.); (B.B.)
| | - Anthony Renard
- Department for Integrative and Computational Neuroscience (ICN), Paris-Saclay Institute of Neuroscience (NeuroPSI), UMR9197 CNRS/University Paris Sud CNRS, Building 32/33, 1 Avenue de la Terrasse, 91190 Gif-sur-Yvette, France
- Institut Pasteur, INSERM, Institut de l’Audition, 63 rue de Charenton, F-75012 Paris, France
| | - Brice Bathellier
- Department for Integrative and Computational Neuroscience (ICN), Paris-Saclay Institute of Neuroscience (NeuroPSI), UMR9197 CNRS/University Paris Sud CNRS, Building 32/33, 1 Avenue de la Terrasse, 91190 Gif-sur-Yvette, France
- Institut Pasteur, INSERM, Institut de l’Audition, 63 rue de Charenton, F-75012 Paris, France
- Corresponding author. (E.R.H.); (B.B.)
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18
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Rodgers CC, Nogueira R, Pil BC, Greeman EA, Park JM, Hong YK, Fusi S, Bruno RM. Sensorimotor strategies and neuronal representations for shape discrimination. Neuron 2021; 109:2308-2325.e10. [PMID: 34133944 PMCID: PMC8298290 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2021.05.019] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/02/2020] [Revised: 01/28/2021] [Accepted: 05/14/2021] [Indexed: 10/21/2022]
Abstract
Humans and other animals can identify objects by active touch, requiring the coordination of exploratory motion and tactile sensation. Both the motor strategies and neural representations employed could depend on the subject's goals. We developed a shape discrimination task that challenged head-fixed mice to discriminate concave from convex shapes. Behavioral decoding revealed that mice did this by comparing contacts across whiskers. In contrast, a separate group of mice performing a shape detection task simply summed up contacts over whiskers. We recorded populations of neurons in the barrel cortex, which processes whisker input, and found that individual neurons across the cortical layers encoded touch, whisker motion, and task-related signals. Sensory representations were task-specific: during shape discrimination, but not detection, neurons responded most to behaviorally relevant whiskers, overriding somatotopy. Thus, sensory cortex employs task-specific representations compatible with behaviorally relevant computations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Chris C Rodgers
- Department of Neuroscience, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027, USA; Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027, USA; Kavli Institute for Brain Science, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027, USA.
| | - Ramon Nogueira
- Department of Neuroscience, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027, USA; Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027, USA; Center for Theoretical Neuroscience, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027, USA
| | - B Christina Pil
- Department of Neuroscience, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027, USA; Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027, USA; Kavli Institute for Brain Science, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027, USA
| | - Esther A Greeman
- Department of Neuroscience, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027, USA; Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027, USA; Kavli Institute for Brain Science, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027, USA
| | - Jung M Park
- Department of Neuroscience, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027, USA; Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027, USA; Kavli Institute for Brain Science, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027, USA
| | - Y Kate Hong
- Department of Neuroscience, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027, USA; Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027, USA; Kavli Institute for Brain Science, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027, USA
| | - Stefano Fusi
- Department of Neuroscience, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027, USA; Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027, USA; Kavli Institute for Brain Science, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027, USA; Center for Theoretical Neuroscience, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027, USA
| | - Randy M Bruno
- Department of Neuroscience, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027, USA; Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027, USA; Kavli Institute for Brain Science, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027, USA.
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19
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Oladazimi M, Putelat T, Szalai R, Noda K, Shimoyama I, Champneys A, Schwarz C. Conveyance of texture signals along a rat whisker. Sci Rep 2021; 11:13570. [PMID: 34193889 PMCID: PMC8245408 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-92770-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/28/2020] [Accepted: 06/07/2021] [Indexed: 11/09/2022] Open
Abstract
Neuronal activities underlying a percept are constrained by the physics of sensory signals. In the tactile sense such constraints are frictional stick-slip events, occurring, amongst other vibrotactile features, when tactile sensors are in contact with objects. We reveal new biomechanical phenomena about the transmission of these microNewton forces at the tip of a rat's whisker, where they occur, to the base where they engage primary afferents. Using high resolution videography and accurate measurement of axial and normal forces at the follicle, we show that the conical and curved rat whisker acts as a sign-converting amplification filter for moment to robustly engage primary afferents. Furthermore, we present a model based on geometrically nonlinear Cosserat rod theory and a friction model that recreates the observed whole-beam whisker dynamics. The model quantifies the relation between kinematics (positions and velocities) and dynamic variables (forces and moments). Thus, only videographic assessment of acceleration is required to estimate forces and moments measured by the primary afferents. Our study highlights how sensory systems deal with complex physical constraints of perceptual targets and sensors.
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Affiliation(s)
- Maysam Oladazimi
- Systems Neurophysiology, Werner Reichardt Centre for Integrative Neuroscience, University of Tübingen, Otfried Müller Str. 25, 72076, Tübingen, Germany.,Systems Neurophysiology, Hertie Institute for Clinical Brain Research, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
| | - Thibaut Putelat
- Department of Engineering Mathematics, University of Bristol, Bristol, BS8 1UB, UK.,Department of Sustainable Agriculture Sciences, Rothamsted Research, Harpenden, AL5 2JQ, UK
| | - Robert Szalai
- Department of Engineering Mathematics, University of Bristol, Bristol, BS8 1UB, UK
| | - Kentaro Noda
- Department of Mechano-Informatics, Graduate School of Information Science and Technology, University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan.,Department of Intelligent Robotics, Toyama Prefectural University, Toyama, Japan
| | - Isao Shimoyama
- Department of Mechano-Informatics, Graduate School of Information Science and Technology, University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan.,Toyama Prefectural University, Toyama, Japan
| | - Alan Champneys
- Department of Engineering Mathematics, University of Bristol, Bristol, BS8 1UB, UK
| | - Cornelius Schwarz
- Systems Neurophysiology, Werner Reichardt Centre for Integrative Neuroscience, University of Tübingen, Otfried Müller Str. 25, 72076, Tübingen, Germany. .,Systems Neurophysiology, Hertie Institute for Clinical Brain Research, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany.
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20
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Wright NC, Borden PY, Liew YJ, Bolus MF, Stoy WM, Forest CR, Stanley GB. Rapid Cortical Adaptation and the Role of Thalamic Synchrony during Wakefulness. J Neurosci 2021; 41:5421-5439. [PMID: 33986072 PMCID: PMC8221593 DOI: 10.1523/jneurosci.3018-20.2021] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/30/2020] [Revised: 03/18/2021] [Accepted: 04/29/2021] [Indexed: 12/14/2022] Open
Abstract
Rapid sensory adaptation is observed across all sensory systems, and strongly shapes sensory percepts in complex sensory environments. Yet despite its ubiquity and likely necessity for survival, the mechanistic basis is poorly understood. A wide range of primarily in vitro and anesthetized studies have demonstrated the emergence of adaptation at the level of primary sensory cortex, with only modest signatures in earlier stages of processing. The nature of rapid adaptation and how it shapes sensory representations during wakefulness, and thus the potential role in perceptual adaptation, is underexplored, as are the mechanisms that underlie this phenomenon. To address these knowledge gaps, we recorded spiking activity in primary somatosensory cortex (S1) and the upstream ventral posteromedial (VPm) thalamic nucleus in the vibrissa pathway of awake male and female mice, and quantified responses to whisker stimuli delivered in isolation and embedded in an adapting sensory background. We found that cortical sensory responses were indeed adapted by persistent sensory stimulation; putative excitatory neurons were profoundly adapted, and inhibitory neurons only modestly so. Further optogenetic manipulation experiments and network modeling suggest this largely reflects adaptive changes in synchronous thalamic firing combined with robust engagement of feedforward inhibition, with little contribution from synaptic depression. Taken together, these results suggest that cortical adaptation in the regime explored here results from changes in the timing of thalamic input, and the way in which this differentially impacts cortical excitation and feedforward inhibition, pointing to a prominent role of thalamic gating in rapid adaptation of primary sensory cortex.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Rapid adaptation of sensory activity strongly shapes representations of sensory inputs across all sensory pathways over the timescale of seconds, and has profound effects on sensory perception. Despite its ubiquity and theoretical role in the efficient encoding of complex sensory environments, the mechanistic basis is poorly understood, particularly during wakefulness. In this study in the vibrissa pathway of awake mice, we show that cortical representations of sensory inputs are strongly shaped by rapid adaptation, and that this is mediated primarily by adaptive gating of the thalamic inputs to primary sensory cortex and the differential way in which these inputs engage cortical subpopulations of neurons.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nathaniel C Wright
- Wallace H Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia 30332
| | - Peter Y Borden
- Wallace H Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia 30332
| | - Yi Juin Liew
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia 30332 and Beijing University, Beijing China 100871
| | - Michael F Bolus
- Wallace H Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia 30332
| | - William M Stoy
- Department of Mechanical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia 30332
| | - Craig R Forest
- Department of Mechanical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia 30332
| | - Garrett B Stanley
- Wallace H Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia 30332
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21
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O'Connor DH, Krubitzer L, Bensmaia S. Of mice and monkeys: Somatosensory processing in two prominent animal models. Prog Neurobiol 2021; 201:102008. [PMID: 33587956 PMCID: PMC8096687 DOI: 10.1016/j.pneurobio.2021.102008] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/22/2020] [Revised: 12/26/2020] [Accepted: 02/07/2021] [Indexed: 11/20/2022]
Abstract
Our understanding of the neural basis of somatosensation is based largely on studies of the whisker system of mice and rats and the hands of macaque monkeys. Results across these animal models are often interpreted as providing direct insight into human somatosensation. Work on these systems has proceeded in parallel, capitalizing on the strengths of each model, but has rarely been considered as a whole. This lack of integration promotes a piecemeal understanding of somatosensation. Here, we examine the functions and morphologies of whiskers of mice and rats, the hands of macaque monkeys, and the somatosensory neuraxes of these three species. We then discuss how somatosensory information is encoded in their respective nervous systems, highlighting similarities and differences. We reflect on the limitations of these models of human somatosensation and consider key gaps in our understanding of the neural basis of somatosensation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Daniel H O'Connor
- Solomon H. Snyder Department of Neuroscience, Kavli Neuroscience Discovery Institute, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, United States; Zanvyl Krieger Mind/Brain Institute, Johns Hopkins University, United States
| | - Leah Krubitzer
- Department of Psychology and Center for Neuroscience, University of California at Davis, United States
| | - Sliman Bensmaia
- Department of Organismal Biology and Anatomy, University of Chicago, United States; Committee on Computational Neuroscience, University of Chicago, United States; Grossman Institute for Neuroscience, Quantitative Biology, and Human Behavior, University of Chicago, United States.
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22
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Brown J, Oldenburg IA, Telian GI, Griffin S, Voges M, Jain V, Adesnik H. Spatial integration during active tactile sensation drives orientation perception. Neuron 2021; 109:1707-1720.e7. [PMID: 33826906 PMCID: PMC8944414 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2021.03.020] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/20/2020] [Revised: 07/24/2020] [Accepted: 03/11/2021] [Indexed: 01/07/2023]
Abstract
Active haptic sensation is critical for object identification, but its neural circuit basis is poorly understood. We combined optogenetics, two-photon imaging, and high-speed behavioral tracking in mice solving a whisker-based object orientation discrimination task. We found that orientation discrimination required animals to summate input from multiple whiskers specifically along the whisker arc. Animals discriminated the orientation of the stimulus per se as their performance was invariant to the location of the presented stimulus. Populations of barrel cortex neurons summated across whiskers to encode each orientation. Finally, acute optogenetic inactivation of the barrel cortex and cell-type-specific optogenetic suppression of layer 4 excitatory neurons degraded performance, implying that infragranular layers alone are not sufficient to solve the task. These data suggest that spatial summation over an active haptic array generates representations of an object's orientation, which may facilitate encoding of complex three-dimensional objects during active exploration.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jennifer Brown
- Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA
| | - Ian Antón Oldenburg
- Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA
| | - Gregory I Telian
- The Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA
| | - Sandon Griffin
- Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA
| | - Mieke Voges
- Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA
| | - Vedant Jain
- Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA
| | - Hillel Adesnik
- Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA; The Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA.
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23
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Mocanu VM, Shmuel A. Optical Imaging-Based Guidance of Viral Microinjections and Insertion of a Laminar Electrophysiology Probe Into a Predetermined Barrel in Mouse Area S1BF. Front Neural Circuits 2021; 15:541676. [PMID: 34054436 PMCID: PMC8158817 DOI: 10.3389/fncir.2021.541676] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/10/2020] [Accepted: 03/31/2021] [Indexed: 12/04/2022] Open
Abstract
Wide-field Optical Imaging of Intrinsic Signals (OI-IS; Grinvald et al., 1986) is a method for imaging functional brain hemodynamic responses, mainly used to image activity from the surface of the cerebral cortex. It localizes small functional modules – such as cortical columns – with great spatial resolution and spatial specificity relative to the site of increases in neuronal activity. OI-IS is capable of imaging responses either through an intact or thinned skull or following a craniotomy. Therefore, it is minimally invasive, which makes it ideal for survival experiments. Here we describe OI-IS-based methods for guiding microinjections of optogenetics viral vectors in proximity to small functional modules (S1 barrels) of the cerebral cortex and for guiding the insertion of electrodes for electrophysiological recording into such modules. We validate our proposed methods by tissue processing of the cerebral barrel field area, revealing the track of the electrode in a predetermined barrel. In addition, we demonstrate the use of optical imaging to visualize the spatial extent of the optogenetics photostimulation, making it possible to estimate one of the two variables that conjointly determine which region of the brain is stimulated. Lastly, we demonstrate the use of OI-IS at high-magnification for imaging the upper recording contacts of a laminar probe, making it possible to estimate the insertion depth of all contacts relative to the surface of the cortex. These methods support the precise positioning of microinjections and recording electrodes, thus overcoming the variability in the spatial position of fine-scale functional modules.
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Affiliation(s)
- Victor M Mocanu
- McConnell Brain Imaging Centre, Montreal Neurological Institute, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada.,Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada
| | - Amir Shmuel
- McConnell Brain Imaging Centre, Montreal Neurological Institute, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada.,Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada.,Department of Physiology, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada.,Department of Biomedical Engineering, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada
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24
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Real-Time Closed-Loop Feedback in Behavioral Time Scales Using DeepLabCut. eNeuro 2021; 8:ENEURO.0415-20.2021. [PMID: 33547045 PMCID: PMC8174057 DOI: 10.1523/eneuro.0415-20.2021] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/25/2020] [Revised: 01/23/2021] [Accepted: 01/26/2021] [Indexed: 11/21/2022] Open
Abstract
Computer vision approaches have made significant inroads into offline tracking of behavior and estimating animal poses. In particular, because of their versatility, deep-learning approaches have been gaining attention in behavioral tracking without any markers. Here, we developed an approach using DeepLabCut for real-time estimation of movement. We trained a deep-neural network (DNN) offline with high-speed video data of a mouse whisking, then transferred the trained network to work with the same mouse, whisking in real-time. With this approach, we tracked the tips of three whiskers in an arc and converted positions into a TTL output within behavioral time scales, i.e., 10.5 ms. With this approach, it is possible to trigger output based on movement of individual whiskers, or on the distance between adjacent whiskers. Flexible closed-loop systems like the one we have deployed here can complement optogenetic approaches and can be used to directly manipulate the relationship between movement and neural activity.
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25
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Ngo GN, Haak KV, Beckmann CF, Menon RS. Mesoscale hierarchical organization of primary somatosensory cortex captured by resting-state-fMRI in humans. Neuroimage 2021; 235:118031. [PMID: 33836270 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2021.118031] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/08/2020] [Revised: 03/19/2021] [Accepted: 03/26/2021] [Indexed: 12/25/2022] Open
Abstract
The primary somatosensory cortex (S1) plays a key role in the processing and integration of afferent somatosensory inputs along an anterior-to-posterior axis, contributing towards necessary human function. It is believed that anatomical connectivity can be used to probe hierarchical organization, however direct characterization of this principle in-vivo within humans remains elusive. Here, we use resting-state functional connectivity as a complement to anatomical connectivity to investigate topographical principles of human S1. We employ a novel approach to examine mesoscopic variations of functional connectivity, and demonstrate a topographic organisation spanning the region's hierarchical axis that strongly correlates with underlying microstructure while tracing along architectonic Brodmann areas. Our findings characterize anatomical hierarchy of S1 as a 'continuous spectrum' with evidence supporting a functional boundary between areas 3b and 1. The identification of this topography bridges the gap between structure and connectivity, and may be used to help further current understanding of sensorimotor deficits.
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Affiliation(s)
- Geoffrey N Ngo
- Department of Medical Biophysics, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada
| | - Koen V Haak
- Donders Institute of Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University Medical Center, 6500HB Nijmegen, the Netherlands
| | - Christian F Beckmann
- Donders Institute of Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University Medical Center, 6500HB Nijmegen, the Netherlands; Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging (WIN FMRIB), University of Oxford, Oxford OX3 9DU, UK
| | - Ravi S Menon
- Department of Medical Biophysics, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada; Centre for Functional and Metabolic Mapping, Robarts Research Institute, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada.
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26
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Cheung JA, Maire P, Kim J, Lee K, Flynn G, Hires SA. Independent representations of self-motion and object location in barrel cortex output. PLoS Biol 2020; 18:e3000882. [PMID: 33141817 PMCID: PMC7665803 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3000882] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/03/2020] [Revised: 11/13/2020] [Accepted: 09/18/2020] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
During active tactile exploration, the dynamic patterns of touch are transduced to electrical signals and transformed by the brain into a mental representation of the object under investigation. This transformation from sensation to perception is thought to be a major function of the mammalian cortex. In primary somatosensory cortex (S1) of mice, layer 5 (L5) pyramidal neurons are major outputs to downstream areas that influence perception, decision-making, and motor control. We investigated self-motion and touch representations in L5 of S1 with juxtacellular loose-seal patch recordings of optogenetically identified excitatory neurons. We found that during rhythmic whisker movement, 54 of 115 active neurons (47%) represented self-motion. This population was significantly more modulated by whisker angle than by phase. Upon active touch, a distinct pattern of activity was evoked across L5, which represented the whisker angle at the time of touch. Object location was decodable with submillimeter precision from the touch-evoked spike counts of a randomly sampled handful of these neurons. These representations of whisker angle during self-motion and touch were independent, both in the selection of which neurons were active and in the angle-tuning preference of coactive neurons. Thus, the output of S1 transiently shifts from a representation of self-motion to an independent representation of explored object location during active touch.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jonathan Andrew Cheung
- Department of Biological Sciences, Section of Neurobiology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, United States of America
- Neuroscience Graduate Program, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, United States of America
| | - Phillip Maire
- Department of Biological Sciences, Section of Neurobiology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, United States of America
- Neuroscience Graduate Program, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, United States of America
| | - Jinho Kim
- Department of Biological Sciences, Section of Neurobiology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, United States of America
| | - Kiana Lee
- Department of Biological Sciences, Section of Neurobiology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, United States of America
| | - Garrett Flynn
- Department of Biological Sciences, Section of Neurobiology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, United States of America
| | - Samuel Andrew Hires
- Department of Biological Sciences, Section of Neurobiology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, United States of America
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Gugig E, Sharma H, Azouz R. Gradient of tactile properties in the rat whisker pad. PLoS Biol 2020; 18:e3000699. [PMID: 33090990 PMCID: PMC7608947 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3000699] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/18/2020] [Revised: 11/03/2020] [Accepted: 09/14/2020] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
The array of vibrissae on a rat's face is the first stage in a high-resolution tactile sensing system. Progressing from rostral to caudal in any vibrissae row results in an increase in whisker length and thickness. This may, in turn, provide a systematic map of separate tactile channels governed by the mechanical properties of the whiskers. To examine whether this map is expressed in a location-dependent transformation of tactile signals into whisker vibrations and neuronal responses, we monitored whiskers' movements across various surfaces and edges. We found a robust rostral-caudal (R-C) gradient of tactile information transmission in which rostral shorter vibrissae displayed a higher sensitivity and bigger differences in response to different textures, whereas longer caudal vibrissae were less sensitive. This gradient is evident in several dynamic properties of vibrissae trajectories. As rodents sample the environment with multiple vibrissae, we found that combining tactile signals from multiple vibrissae resulted in an increased sensitivity and bigger differences in response to the different textures. Nonetheless, we found that texture identity is not represented spatially across the whisker pad. Based on the responses of first-order sensory neurons, we found that they adhere to the tactile information conveyed by the vibrissae. That is, neurons innervating rostral vibrissae were better suited for texture discrimination, whereas neurons innervating caudal vibrissae were more suited for edge detection. These results suggest that the whisker array in rodents forms a sensory structure in which different facets of tactile information are transmitted through location-dependent gradient of vibrissae on the rat's face.
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Affiliation(s)
- Erez Gugig
- Department of Physiology and Cell Biology, Zlotowski Center for Neuroscience, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel
| | - Hariom Sharma
- Department of Physiology and Cell Biology, Zlotowski Center for Neuroscience, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel
| | - Rony Azouz
- Department of Physiology and Cell Biology, Zlotowski Center for Neuroscience, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel
- * E-mail:
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28
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Kim J, Erskine A, Cheung JA, Hires SA. Behavioral and Neural Bases of Tactile Shape Discrimination Learning in Head-Fixed Mice. Neuron 2020; 108:953-967.e8. [PMID: 33002411 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2020.09.012] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/30/2020] [Revised: 07/31/2020] [Accepted: 09/08/2020] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
Tactile shape recognition requires the perception of object surface angles. We investigate how neural representations of object angles are constructed from sensory input and how they reorganize across learning. Head-fixed mice learned to discriminate object angles by active exploration with one whisker. Calcium imaging of layers 2-4 of the barrel cortex revealed maps of object-angle tuning before and after learning. Three-dimensional whisker tracking demonstrated that the sensory input components that best discriminate angles (vertical bending and slide distance) also have the greatest influence on object-angle tuning. Despite the high turnover in active ensemble membership across learning, the population distribution of object-angle tuning preferences remained stable. Angle tuning sharpened, but only in neurons that preferred trained angles. This was correlated with a selective increase in the influence of the most task-relevant sensory component on object-angle tuning. These results show how discrimination training enhances stimulus selectivity in the primary somatosensory cortex while maintaining perceptual stability.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jinho Kim
- Department of Biological Sciences, Section of Neurobiology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089, USA
| | - Andrew Erskine
- Department of Biological Sciences, Section of Neurobiology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089, USA
| | - Jonathan Andrew Cheung
- Department of Biological Sciences, Section of Neurobiology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089, USA
| | - Samuel Andrew Hires
- Department of Biological Sciences, Section of Neurobiology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089, USA.
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29
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Harrell ER, Goldin MA, Bathellier B, Shulz DE. An elaborate sweep-stick code in rat barrel cortex. SCIENCE ADVANCES 2020; 6:6/38/eabb7189. [PMID: 32938665 PMCID: PMC7494352 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abb7189] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/24/2020] [Accepted: 07/23/2020] [Indexed: 06/11/2023]
Abstract
In rat barrel cortex, feature encoding schemes uncovered during broadband whisker stimulation are hard to reconcile with the simple stick-slip code observed during natural tactile behaviors, and this has hindered the development of a generalized computational framework. By designing broadband artificial stimuli to sample the inputs encoded under natural conditions, we resolve this disparity while markedly increasing the percentage of deep layer neurons found to encode whisker movements, as well as the diversity of these encoded features. Deep layer neurons encode two main types of events, sticks and sweeps, corresponding to high angular velocity bumps and large angular displacements with high velocity, respectively. Neurons can exclusively encode sticks or sweeps, or they can encode both, with or without direction selectivity. Beyond unifying coding theories from naturalistic and artificial stimulation studies, these findings delineate a simple and generalizable set of whisker movement features that can support a range of perceptual processes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Evan R Harrell
- Université Paris-Saclay, CNRS, Institut des neurosciences Paris-Saclay (NeuroPSI), Building 32/33, 1 avenue de la Terrasse, 91190, Gif-sur-Yvette, France.
| | - Matías A Goldin
- Université Paris-Saclay, CNRS, Institut des neurosciences Paris-Saclay (NeuroPSI), Building 32/33, 1 avenue de la Terrasse, 91190, Gif-sur-Yvette, France
| | - Brice Bathellier
- Université Paris-Saclay, CNRS, Institut des neurosciences Paris-Saclay (NeuroPSI), Building 32/33, 1 avenue de la Terrasse, 91190, Gif-sur-Yvette, France
| | - Daniel E Shulz
- Université Paris-Saclay, CNRS, Institut des neurosciences Paris-Saclay (NeuroPSI), Building 32/33, 1 avenue de la Terrasse, 91190, Gif-sur-Yvette, France.
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Staiger JF, Petersen CCH. Neuronal Circuits in Barrel Cortex for Whisker Sensory Perception. Physiol Rev 2020; 101:353-415. [PMID: 32816652 DOI: 10.1152/physrev.00019.2019] [Citation(s) in RCA: 49] [Impact Index Per Article: 12.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/06/2023] Open
Abstract
The array of whiskers on the snout provides rodents with tactile sensory information relating to the size, shape and texture of objects in their immediate environment. Rodents can use their whiskers to detect stimuli, distinguish textures, locate objects and navigate. Important aspects of whisker sensation are thought to result from neuronal computations in the whisker somatosensory cortex (wS1). Each whisker is individually represented in the somatotopic map of wS1 by an anatomical unit named a 'barrel' (hence also called barrel cortex). This allows precise investigation of sensory processing in the context of a well-defined map. Here, we first review the signaling pathways from the whiskers to wS1, and then discuss current understanding of the various types of excitatory and inhibitory neurons present within wS1. Different classes of cells can be defined according to anatomical, electrophysiological and molecular features. The synaptic connectivity of neurons within local wS1 microcircuits, as well as their long-range interactions and the impact of neuromodulators, are beginning to be understood. Recent technological progress has allowed cell-type-specific connectivity to be related to cell-type-specific activity during whisker-related behaviors. An important goal for future research is to obtain a causal and mechanistic understanding of how selected aspects of tactile sensory information are processed by specific types of neurons in the synaptically connected neuronal networks of wS1 and signaled to downstream brain areas, thus contributing to sensory-guided decision-making.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jochen F Staiger
- University Medical Center Göttingen, Institute for Neuroanatomy, Göttingen, Germany; and Laboratory of Sensory Processing, Faculty of Life Sciences, Brain Mind Institute, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Carl C H Petersen
- University Medical Center Göttingen, Institute for Neuroanatomy, Göttingen, Germany; and Laboratory of Sensory Processing, Faculty of Life Sciences, Brain Mind Institute, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland
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31
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Touch: Fluctuating Waves of Perception. Curr Biol 2020; 30:R934-R936. [PMID: 32810452 DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2020.06.087] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/21/2022]
Abstract
Does sensory input flow into the brain as a stream, or does it come in waves? New research shows that tactile information in the cortex rises and falls in phase with the forward and back motion of whiskers during surface exploration.
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32
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Parker PRL, Brown MA, Smear MC, Niell CM. Movement-Related Signals in Sensory Areas: Roles in Natural Behavior. Trends Neurosci 2020; 43:581-595. [PMID: 32580899 PMCID: PMC8000520 DOI: 10.1016/j.tins.2020.05.005] [Citation(s) in RCA: 66] [Impact Index Per Article: 16.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/25/2020] [Revised: 05/02/2020] [Accepted: 05/24/2020] [Indexed: 11/24/2022]
Abstract
Recent studies have demonstrated prominent and widespread movement-related signals in the brain of head-fixed mice, even in primary sensory areas. However, it is still unknown what role these signals play in sensory processing. Why are these sensory areas 'contaminated' by movement signals? During natural behavior, animals actively acquire sensory information as they move through the environment and use this information to guide ongoing actions. In this context, movement-related signals could allow sensory systems to predict self-induced sensory changes and extract additional information about the environment. In this review we summarize recent findings on the presence of movement-related signals in sensory areas and discuss how their study, in the context of natural freely moving behaviors, could advance models of sensory processing.
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Affiliation(s)
- Philip R L Parker
- Institute of Neuroscience, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403, USA.
| | - Morgan A Brown
- Institute of Neuroscience, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403, USA
| | - Matthew C Smear
- Institute of Neuroscience, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403, USA; Department of Psychology, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403, USA
| | - Cristopher M Niell
- Institute of Neuroscience, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403, USA; Department of Biology, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403, USA.
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33
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Isett BR, Feldman DE. Cortical Coding of Whisking Phase during Surface Whisking. Curr Biol 2020; 30:3065-3074.e5. [PMID: 32531284 DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2020.05.064] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/27/2019] [Revised: 04/16/2020] [Accepted: 05/19/2020] [Indexed: 12/27/2022]
Abstract
In rodent whisker sensation, whisker position signals, including whisking phase, are integrated with touch signals to enable spatially accurate tactile perception, but other functions of phase coding are unclear. We investigate how phase coding affects the neural coding of surface features during surface whisking. In mice performing rough-smooth discrimination, S1 units exhibit much stronger phase tuning during surface whisking than in prior studies of whisking in air. Among putative pyramidal cells, preferred phase tiles phase space, but protraction phases are strongly over-represented. Fast-spiking units are nearly all protraction tuned. This protraction bias increases the coding of stick-slip whisker events during protraction, suggesting that surface features are preferentially encoded during protraction. Correspondingly, protraction-tuned units encode rough-smooth texture better than retraction-tuned units and encode the precise spatial location of surface ridges with higher acuity. This suggests that protraction is the main information-gathering phase for high-resolution surface features, with phase coding organized to support this function.
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Affiliation(s)
- Brian R Isett
- Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, and Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
| | - Daniel E Feldman
- Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, and Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA.
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34
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Vecchia D, Beltramo R, Vallone F, Chéreau R, Forli A, Molano-Mazón M, Bawa T, Binini N, Moretti C, Holtmaat A, Panzeri S, Fellin T. Temporal Sharpening of Sensory Responses by Layer V in the Mouse Primary Somatosensory Cortex. Curr Biol 2020; 30:1589-1599.e10. [PMID: 32169206 PMCID: PMC7198976 DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2020.02.004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/24/2019] [Revised: 01/16/2020] [Accepted: 02/03/2020] [Indexed: 01/14/2023]
Abstract
The timing of stimulus-evoked spikes encodes information about sensory stimuli. Here we studied the neural circuits controlling this process in the mouse primary somatosensory cortex. We found that brief optogenetic activation of layer V pyramidal cells just after whisker deflection modulated the membrane potential of neurons and interrupted their long-latency whisker responses, increasing their accuracy in encoding whisker deflection time. In contrast, optogenetic inhibition of layer V during either passive whisker deflection or active whisking decreased accuracy in encoding stimulus or touch time, respectively. Suppression of layer V pyramidal cells increased reaction times in a texture discrimination task. Moreover, two-color optogenetic experiments revealed that cortical inhibition was efficiently recruited by layer V stimulation and that it mainly involved activation of parvalbumin-positive rather than somatostatin-positive interneurons. Layer V thus performs behaviorally relevant temporal sharpening of sensory responses through circuit-specific recruitment of cortical inhibition.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dania Vecchia
- Optical Approaches to Brain Function Laboratory, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, 16163 Genova, Italy; Neural Coding Laboratory, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, 16163 Genova and 38068 Rovereto, Italy
| | - Riccardo Beltramo
- Optical Approaches to Brain Function Laboratory, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, 16163 Genova, Italy
| | - Fabio Vallone
- Neural Coding Laboratory, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, 16163 Genova and 38068 Rovereto, Italy
| | - Ronan Chéreau
- Department of Basic Neurosciences, Geneva University Neurocenter, Faculty of Medicine, University of Geneva, 1206 Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Angelo Forli
- Optical Approaches to Brain Function Laboratory, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, 16163 Genova, Italy; Neural Coding Laboratory, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, 16163 Genova and 38068 Rovereto, Italy
| | - Manuel Molano-Mazón
- Neural Coding Laboratory, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, 16163 Genova and 38068 Rovereto, Italy; Neural Computation Laboratory, Center for Neuroscience and Cognitive Systems @UniTn, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, 38068 Rovereto, Italy
| | - Tanika Bawa
- Department of Basic Neurosciences, Geneva University Neurocenter, Faculty of Medicine, University of Geneva, 1206 Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Noemi Binini
- Optical Approaches to Brain Function Laboratory, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, 16163 Genova, Italy; Neural Coding Laboratory, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, 16163 Genova and 38068 Rovereto, Italy
| | - Claudio Moretti
- Optical Approaches to Brain Function Laboratory, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, 16163 Genova, Italy; Neural Coding Laboratory, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, 16163 Genova and 38068 Rovereto, Italy
| | - Anthony Holtmaat
- Department of Basic Neurosciences, Geneva University Neurocenter, Faculty of Medicine, University of Geneva, 1206 Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Stefano Panzeri
- Neural Coding Laboratory, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, 16163 Genova and 38068 Rovereto, Italy; Neural Computation Laboratory, Center for Neuroscience and Cognitive Systems @UniTn, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, 38068 Rovereto, Italy
| | - Tommaso Fellin
- Optical Approaches to Brain Function Laboratory, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, 16163 Genova, Italy; Neural Coding Laboratory, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, 16163 Genova and 38068 Rovereto, Italy.
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Sermet BS, Truschow P, Feyerabend M, Mayrhofer JM, Oram TB, Yizhar O, Staiger JF, Petersen CCH. Pathway-, layer- and cell-type-specific thalamic input to mouse barrel cortex. eLife 2019; 8:e52665. [PMID: 31860443 PMCID: PMC6924959 DOI: 10.7554/elife.52665] [Citation(s) in RCA: 66] [Impact Index Per Article: 13.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/11/2019] [Accepted: 12/10/2019] [Indexed: 02/06/2023] Open
Abstract
Mouse primary somatosensory barrel cortex (wS1) processes whisker sensory information, receiving input from two distinct thalamic nuclei. The first-order ventral posterior medial (VPM) somatosensory thalamic nucleus most densely innervates layer 4 (L4) barrels, whereas the higher-order posterior thalamic nucleus (medial part, POm) most densely innervates L1 and L5A. We optogenetically stimulated VPM or POm axons, and recorded evoked excitatory postsynaptic potentials (EPSPs) in different cell-types across cortical layers in wS1. We found that excitatory neurons and parvalbumin-expressing inhibitory neurons received the largest EPSPs, dominated by VPM input to L4 and POm input to L5A. In contrast, somatostatin-expressing inhibitory neurons received very little input from either pathway in any layer. Vasoactive intestinal peptide-expressing inhibitory neurons received an intermediate level of excitatory input with less apparent layer-specificity. Our data help understand how wS1 neocortical microcircuits might process and integrate sensory and higher-order inputs.
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Affiliation(s)
- B Semihcan Sermet
- Laboratory of Sensory Processing, Brain Mind Institute, Faculty of Life SciencesEcole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL)LausanneSwitzerland
| | - Pavel Truschow
- Institute for Neuroanatomy,University Medical CenterGeorg-August-University GoettingenGoettingenGermany
| | - Michael Feyerabend
- Institute for Neuroanatomy,University Medical CenterGeorg-August-University GoettingenGoettingenGermany
| | - Johannes M Mayrhofer
- Laboratory of Sensory Processing, Brain Mind Institute, Faculty of Life SciencesEcole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL)LausanneSwitzerland
| | - Tess B Oram
- Department of NeurobiologyWeizmann Institute of ScienceRehovotIsrael
| | - Ofer Yizhar
- Department of NeurobiologyWeizmann Institute of ScienceRehovotIsrael
| | - Jochen F Staiger
- Institute for Neuroanatomy,University Medical CenterGeorg-August-University GoettingenGoettingenGermany
| | - Carl CH Petersen
- Laboratory of Sensory Processing, Brain Mind Institute, Faculty of Life SciencesEcole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL)LausanneSwitzerland
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36
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The Sensorimotor Basis of Whisker-Guided Anteroposterior Object Localization in Head-Fixed Mice. Curr Biol 2019; 29:3029-3040.e4. [PMID: 31474537 PMCID: PMC6771421 DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2019.07.068] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/10/2019] [Revised: 06/26/2019] [Accepted: 07/23/2019] [Indexed: 11/22/2022]
Abstract
Active tactile perception combines directed motion with sensory signals to generate mental representations of objects in space. Competing models exist for how mice use these signals to determine the precise location of objects along their face. We tested six of these models using behavioral manipulations and statistical learning in head-fixed mice. Trained mice used a whisker to locate a pole in a continuous range of locations along the anteroposterior axis. Mice discriminated locations to ≤0.5 mm (<2°) resolution. Their motor program was noisy, adaptive to touch, and directed to the rewarded range. This exploration produced several sets of sensorimotor features that could discriminate location. Integration of two features, touch count and whisking midpoint at touch, was the simplest model that explained behavior best. These results show how mice locate objects at hyperacute resolution using a learned motor strategy and minimal set of mentally accessible sensorimotor features.
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Abstract
Tactile sensory information from facial whiskers provides nocturnal tunnel-dwelling rodents, including mice and rats, with important spatial and textural information about their immediate surroundings. Whiskers are moved back and forth to scan the environment (whisking), and touch signals from each whisker evoke sparse patterns of neuronal activity in whisker-related primary somatosensory cortex (wS1; barrel cortex). Whisking is accompanied by desynchronized brain states and cell-type-specific changes in spontaneous and evoked neuronal activity. Tactile information, including object texture and location, appears to be computed in wS1 through integration of motor and sensory signals. wS1 also directly controls whisker movements and contributes to learned, whisker-dependent, goal-directed behaviours. The cell-type-specific neuronal circuitry in wS1 that contributes to whisker sensory perception is beginning to be defined.
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38
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Laboy-Juárez KJ, Langberg T, Ahn S, Feldman DE. Elementary motion sequence detectors in whisker somatosensory cortex. Nat Neurosci 2019; 22:1438-1449. [PMID: 31332375 PMCID: PMC6713603 DOI: 10.1038/s41593-019-0448-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/13/2018] [Accepted: 06/11/2019] [Indexed: 01/09/2023]
Abstract
How somatosensory cortex (S1) encodes complex patterns of touch, as occur during tactile exploration, is poorly understood. In mouse whisker S1, temporally dense stimulation of local whisker pairs revealed that most neurons are not classical single-whisker feature detectors, but instead are strongly tuned to 2-whisker sequences involving the columnar whisker (CW) and one, specific surround whisker (SW), usually in SW-leading-CW order. Tuning was spatiotemporally precise and diverse across cells, generating a rate code for local motion vectors defined by SW-CW combinations. Spatially asymmetric, sublinear suppression for suboptimal combinations and near-linearity for preferred combinations sharpened combination tuning relative to linearly predicted tuning. This resembles computation of motion direction selectivity in vision. SW-tuned neurons, misplaced in the classical whisker map, had the strongest combination tuning. Thus, each S1 column contains a rate code for local motion sequences involving the CW, providing a basis for higher-order feature extraction.
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Affiliation(s)
- Keven J Laboy-Juárez
- Deparment of Molecular and Cell Biology and Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA.,Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology and Center for Brain Science, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Tomer Langberg
- Deparment of Molecular and Cell Biology and Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA
| | - Seoiyoung Ahn
- Deparment of Molecular and Cell Biology and Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA
| | - Daniel E Feldman
- Deparment of Molecular and Cell Biology and Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA.
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39
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Maravall M. Sensory Decision-Making: Rats Sleuth Evidence through Active Sensing. Curr Biol 2019; 29:R317-R319. [DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2019.03.034] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/26/2022]
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40
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Abstract
The nervous system processes phenomenal amounts of information. This processing must be conducted efficiently. In telecommunications systems, efficiency is increased by transmitting multiple signals through a single communication channel, or multiplexing. Neurons also multiplex. Here, we demonstrate a strategy for multiplexing different features of aperiodic stimuli: Cortical neurons use the rate of asynchronous spiking to encode stimulus intensity while using the timing of synchronous spikes to encode abrupt changes in stimulus intensity. This is possible because high-contrast features (e.g., edges) evoke spikes that transiently synchronize across neurons, whereas low-contrast features evoke sustained asynchronous spiking whose rate is proportional to stimulus intensity. Differentially synchronized spiking evoked in the same neurons by different stimulus features enables the formation of multiplexed representations. Multiplexing refers to the simultaneous encoding of two or more signals. Neurons have been shown to multiplex, but different stimuli require different multiplexing strategies. Whereas the frequency and amplitude of periodic stimuli can be encoded by the timing and rate of the same spikes, natural scenes, which comprise areas over which intensity varies gradually and sparse edges where intensity changes abruptly, require a different multiplexing strategy. Recording in vivo from neurons in primary somatosensory cortex during tactile stimulation, we found that stimulus onset and offset (edges) evoked highly synchronized spiking, whereas other spikes in the same neurons occurred asynchronously. Stimulus intensity modulated the rate of asynchronous spiking, but did not affect the timing of synchronous spikes. From this, we hypothesized that spikes driven by high- and low-contrast stimulus features can be distinguished on the basis of their synchronization, and that differentially synchronized spiking can thus be used to form multiplexed representations. Applying a Bayesian decoding method, we verified that information about high- and low-contrast features can be recovered from an ensemble of model neurons receiving common input. Equally good decoding was achieved by distinguishing synchronous from asynchronous spikes and applying reverse correlation methods separately to each spike type. This result, which we verified with patch clamp recordings in vitro, demonstrates that neurons receiving common input can use the rate of asynchronous spiking to encode the intensity of low-contrast features while using the timing of synchronous spikes to encode the occurrence of high-contrast features. We refer to this strategy as synchrony-division multiplexing.
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Neural Coding for Shape and Texture in Macaque Area V4. J Neurosci 2019; 39:4760-4774. [PMID: 30948478 DOI: 10.1523/jneurosci.3073-18.2019] [Citation(s) in RCA: 34] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/06/2018] [Revised: 03/19/2019] [Accepted: 04/01/2019] [Indexed: 11/21/2022] Open
Abstract
The distinct visual sensations of shape and texture have been studied separately in cortex; therefore, it remains unknown whether separate neuronal populations encode each of these properties or one population carries a joint encoding. We directly compared shape and texture selectivity of individual V4 neurons in awake macaques (1 male, 1 female) and found that V4 neurons lie along a continuum from strong tuning for boundary curvature of shapes to strong tuning for perceptual dimensions of texture. Among neurons tuned to both attributes, tuning for shape and texture were largely separable, with the latter delayed by ∼30 ms. We also found that shape stimuli typically evoked stronger, more selective responses than did texture patches, regardless of whether the latter were contained within or extended beyond the receptive field. These results suggest that there are separate specializations in mid-level cortical processing for visual attributes of shape and texture.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Object recognition depends on our ability to see both the shape of the boundaries of objects and properties of their surfaces. However, neuroscientists have never before examined how shape and texture are linked together in mid-level visual cortex. In this study, we used systematically designed sets of simple shapes and texture patches to probe the responses of individual neurons in the primate visual cortex. Our results provide the first evidence that some cortical neurons specialize in processing shape whereas others specialize in processing textures. Most neurons lie between the ends of this continuum, and in these neurons we find that shape and texture encoding are largely independent.
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Williams B, Speed A, Haider B. A novel device for real-time measurement and manipulation of licking behavior in head-fixed mice. J Neurophysiol 2018; 120:2975-2987. [PMID: 30256741 PMCID: PMC6442917 DOI: 10.1152/jn.00500.2018] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/25/2018] [Revised: 09/13/2018] [Accepted: 09/24/2018] [Indexed: 01/12/2023] Open
Abstract
The mouse has become an influential model system for investigating the mammalian nervous system. Technologies in mice enable recording and manipulation of neural circuits during tasks where they respond to sensory stimuli by licking for liquid rewards. Precise monitoring of licking during these tasks provides an accessible metric of sensory-motor processing, particularly when combined with simultaneous neural recordings. There are several challenges in designing and implementing lick detectors during head-fixed neurophysiological experiments in mice. First, mice are small, and licking behaviors are easily perturbed or biased by large sensors. Second, neural recordings during licking are highly sensitive to electrical contact artifacts. Third, submillisecond lick detection latencies are required to generate control signals that manipulate neural activity at appropriate time scales. Here we designed, characterized, and implemented a contactless dual-port device that precisely measures directional licking in head-fixed mice performing visual behavior. We first determined the optimal characteristics of our detector through design iteration and then quantified device performance under ideal conditions. We then tested performance during head-fixed mouse behavior with simultaneous neural recordings in vivo. We finally demonstrate our device's ability to detect directional licks and generate appropriate control signals in real time to rapidly suppress licking behavior via closed-loop inhibition of neural activity. Our dual-port detector is cost effective and easily replicable, and it should enable a wide variety of applications probing the neural circuit basis of sensory perception, motor action, and learning in normal and transgenic mouse models. NEW & NOTEWORTHY Mice readily learn tasks in which they respond to sensory cues by licking for liquid rewards; tasks that involve multiple licking responses allow study of neural circuits underlying decision making and sensory-motor integration. Here we design, characterize, and implement a novel dual-port lick detector that precisely measures directional licking in head-fixed mice performing visual behavior, enabling simultaneous neural recording and closed-loop manipulation of licking.
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Affiliation(s)
- Brice Williams
- Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University , Atlanta, Georgia
| | - Anderson Speed
- Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University , Atlanta, Georgia
| | - Bilal Haider
- Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University , Atlanta, Georgia
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