Cortical Sensory Responses Are Enhanced by the Higher-Order Thalamus

Mease, Rebecca A.; Metz, Markus; Groh, Alexander

doi:10.1016/j.celrep.2015.12.026

Cited by 76 publications

(83 citation statements)

References 36 publications

(78 reference statements)

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“…While both claustrum and associative thalamic structures, such as the pulvinar nucleus, innervate the cortex and exhibit transient responses to visual stimuli in monkeys (Remedios et al 2010; Petersen et al 1985), how these structures innervate and influence cortical activity may differ. Our results demonstrate that claustrum transiently drives PtA neuron firing, whereas associative thalamic synapses onto cortical neurons provides a modulatory input in rodents (Cruikshank et al 2012; Mease et al 2016). Notably, however, studies examining thalamic afferent drive of specifically parietal cortex neurons are lacking.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 57%

Frontal cortical control of posterior sensory and association cortices through the claustrum

White

Mathur

2018

Brain Struct Funct

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The claustrum is a telencephalic gray matter nucleus that is richly interconnected with the neocortex. This structure subserves top-down executive functions that require frontal cortical control of posterior cortical regions. However, functional anatomical support for the claustrum allowing for long-range intercortical communication is lacking. To test this, we performed a channelrhodopsin-assisted long-circuit mapping strategy in mouse brain slices. We find that anterior cingulate cortex input to the claustrum is transiently amplified by claustrum neurons that, in turn, project to parietal association cortex or to primary and secondary visual cortices. Additionally, we observe that claustrum drive of cortical neurons in parietal association cortex is layer-specific, eliciting action potential generation briefly in layers II/III, IV, and VI but not V. These data are the first to provide a functional anatomical substrate through claustrum that may underlie top-down functions, such as executive attention or working memory, providing critical insight to this most interconnected and enigmatic nucleus.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 57%

Frontal cortical control of posterior sensory and association cortices through the claustrum

White

Mathur

2018

Brain Struct Funct

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“…However, propagation of more precise burst size information requires that cortical responses scale with thalamic burst size, which has yet to be shown. One possible approach could be combining optogenetic methods with thalamic and cortical recordings (Whitmire et al, 2016, Mease et al, 2016a, Mease et al, 2016b, Whitmire et al, 2017). …”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Multiplexed Spike Coding and Adaptation in the Thalamus

et al. 2017

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Summary High-frequency “burst” clusters of spikes are a generic output pattern of many neurons. While bursting is a ubiquitous computational feature of different nervous systems across animal species, the encoding of synaptic inputs by bursts is not well-understood. We find that bursting neurons in the rodent thalamus employ “multiplexing” to differentially encode low- and high-frequency stimulus features associated with either T-type calcium “low-threshold” or fast sodium spiking events, respectively, and these events adapt differently. Thus, thalamic bursts encode disparate information in three channels: 1) burst size, 2) burst onset time, and 3) precise spike timing within bursts. Strikingly, this latter “intraburst” encoding channel shows millisecond-level feature selectivity, and adapts across statistical contexts to maintain stable information encoded per spike. Consequently, calcium events both encode low-frequency stimuli and, in parallel, gate a transient window for high-frequency, adaptive stimulus encoding by sodium spike timing, allowing bursts to efficiently convey fine-scale temporal information.

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“…16C, blue and green lines). Monosynaptic connectivity between POm and L5tt cells was shown functionally by whole-cell recordings from L5tt cells during optogenetic activation of POm projections (Mease et al 2016a).…”

Section: Functionally Relevant Projections To L5tt Cellsmentioning

confidence: 99%

From single cells and single columns to cortical networks: dendritic excitability, coincidence detection and synaptic transmission in brain slices and brains

Sakmann

2017

Experimental Physiology

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Although patch pipettes were initially designed to record extracellularly the elementary current events from muscle and neuron membranes, the whole‐cell and loose cell‐attached recording configurations proved to be useful tools for examination of signalling within and between nerve cells. In this Paton Prize Lecture, I will initially summarize work on electrical signalling within single neurons, describing communication between the dendritic compartments, soma and nerve terminals via forward‐ and backward‐propagating action potentials. The newly discovered dendritic excitability endows neurons with the capacity for coincidence detection of spatially separated subthreshold inputs. When these are occurring during a time window of tens of milliseconds, this information is broadcast to other cells by the initiation of bursts of action potentials (AP bursts). The occurrence of AP bursts critically impacts signalling between neurons that are controlled by target‐cell‐specific transmitter release mechanisms at downstream synapses even in different terminals of the same neuron. This can, in turn, induce mechanisms that underly synaptic plasticity when AP bursts occur within a short time window, both presynaptically in terminals and postsynaptically in dendrites. A fundamental question that arises from these findings is: ‘what are the possible functions of active dendritic excitability with respect to network dynamics in the intact cortex of behaving animals?’ To answer this question, I highlight in this review the functional and anatomical architectures of an average cortical column in the vibrissal (whisker) field of the somatosensory cortex (vS1), with an emphasis on the functions of layer 5 thick‐tufted cells (L5tt) embedded in this structure. Sensory‐evoked synaptic and action potential responses of these major cortical output neurons are compared with responses in the afferent pathway, viz. the neurons in primary somatosensory thalamus and in one of their efferent targets, the secondary somatosensory thalamus. Coincidence‐detection mechanisms appear to be implemented in vivo as judged from the occurrence of AP bursts. Three‐dimensional reconstructions of anatomical projections suggest that inputs of several combinations of thalamocortical projections and intra‐ and transcolumnar connections, specifically those from infragranular layers, could trigger active dendritic mechanisms that generate AP bursts. Finally, recordings from target cells of a column reveal the importance of AP bursts for signal transfer to these cells. The observations lead to the hypothesis that in vS1 cortex, the sensory afferent sensory code is transformed, at least in part, from a rate to an interval (burst) code that broadcasts the occurrence of whisker touch to different targets of L5tt cells. In addition, the occurrence of pre‐ and postsynaptic AP bursts may, in the long run, alter touch representation in cortex.

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Cortical Sensory Responses Are Enhanced by the Higher-Order Thalamus

Cited by 76 publications

References 36 publications

Frontal cortical control of posterior sensory and association cortices through the claustrum

Frontal cortical control of posterior sensory and association cortices through the claustrum

Multiplexed Spike Coding and Adaptation in the Thalamus

From single cells and single columns to cortical networks: dendritic excitability, coincidence detection and synaptic transmission in brain slices and brains

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