Independent representations of self-motion and object location in barrel cortex output.
PLoS Biol
; 18(11): e3000882, 2020 11.
Article
en En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-33141817
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.
Texto completo:
1
Banco de datos:
MEDLINE
Asunto principal:
Corteza Somatosensorial
/
Tacto
/
Percepción del Tacto
Límite:
Animals
Idioma:
En
Revista:
PLoS Biol
Asunto de la revista:
BIOLOGIA
Año:
2020
Tipo del documento:
Article
País de afiliación:
Estados Unidos