Modified Sensory Processing in the Barrel Cortex of the Adult Mouse After Chronic Whisker Stimulation

Quairiaux, Charles; Armstrong‐James, Michael; Welker, Egbert

doi:10.1152/jn.00338.2006

Cited by 30 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 128 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…1D; see METHODS). As shown previously (Di et al 1990;Castro-Alamancos and Oldford 2002;Einevoll et al 2007;Higley and Contreras 2007;Quairiaux et al 2007), the response to the PW deflection was characterized by a sink with the shortest latency to onset (5.0 ms, indicated by small square) and to peak (7.4 ms) in the two electrodes corresponding to granular L4 (Fig. 1D, green rectangle).…”

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 84%

Comprehensive mapping of whisker-evoked responses reveals broad, sharply tuned thalamocortical input to layer 4 of barrel cortex

Roy

Bessaïh

Contreras

2011

Journal of Neurophysiology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Roy NC, Bessaih T, Contreras D. Comprehensive mapping of whisker-evoked responses reveals broad, sharply tuned thalamocortical input to layer 4 of barrel cortex. J Neurophysiol 105: 2421-2437, 2011. First published February 16, 2011 doi:10.1152/jn.00939.2010.-Cortical neurons are organized in columns, distinguishable by their physiological properties and input-output organization. Columns are thought to be the fundamental information-processing modules of the cortex. The barrel cortex of rats and mice is an attractive model system for the study of cortical columns, because each column is defined by a layer 4 (L4) structure called a barrel, which can be clearly visualized. A great deal of information has been collected regarding the connectivity of neurons in barrel cortex, but the nature of the input to a given L4 barrel remains unclear. We measured this input by making comprehensive maps of whisker-evoked activity in L4 of rat barrel cortex using recordings of multiunit activity and current source density analysis of local field potential recordings of animals under light isoflurane anesthesia. We found that a large number of whiskers evoked a detectable response in each barrel (mean of 13 suprathreshold, 18 subthreshold) even after cortical activity was abolished by application of muscimol, a GABA A agonist. We confirmed these findings with intracellular recordings and single-unit extracellular recordings in vivo. This constitutes the first direct confirmation of the hypothesis that subcortical mechanisms mediate a substantial multiwhisker input to a given cortical barrel.

show abstract

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 84%

Comprehensive mapping of whisker-evoked responses reveals broad, sharply tuned thalamocortical input to layer 4 of barrel cortex

Roy

Bessaïh

Contreras

2011

Journal of Neurophysiology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…It is calculated as the product of the second spatial derivative of voltage with the conductivity tensor. Since the latter is generally held to be constant in the neocortex, the CSD was here estimated by calculating the second spatial derivative using a 3-point finite-difference formula (Quairiaux et al, 2007). To compute the CSD at the extremities of the probe, virtual voltage values were extrapolated by assuming no voltage decay above the uppermost and below the lowermost electrodes (Vaknin et al, 1988;Heynen and Bear, 2001).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We then used multichannel intracortical probes to perform CSD analysis of the whisker-evoked LFP recorded in somatosensory cortical layers before and after 8 Hz stimulation. The CSD mainly reflects local synaptic activity by highlighting current flow in discrete cortical layers (Mitzdorf, 1985;Quairiaux et al, 2007). The baseline pattern of laminar whisker-evoked responses in the barrel cortex, starting at ϳ6 ms after stimulus, was characterized by a current sink in layer IV that rapidly extended toward layers II-III, a fainter sink at the layer V-VI border, and superficial and deep sources (Fig.…”

Section: Laminar Profile Of 8 Hz Stimulation-induced Plasticitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Long-Term Plasticity in Mouse Sensorimotor Circuits after Rhythmic Whisker Stimulation

et al. 2009

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Mice actively explore their environment by rhythmically sweeping their whiskers. As a consequence, neuronal activity in somatosensory pathways is modulated by the frequency of whisker movement. The potential role of rhythmic neuronal activity for the integration and consolidation of sensory signals, however, remains unexplored. Here, we show that a brief period of rhythmic whisker stimulation in anesthetized mice resulted in a frequency-specific long-lasting increase in the amplitude of somatosensory-evoked potentials in the contralateral primary somatosensory (barrel) cortex. Mapping of evoked potentials and intracortical recordings revealed that, in addition to potentiation in layers IV and II/III of the barrel cortex, rhythmic whisker stimulation induced a decrease of somatosensory-evoked responses in the supragranular layers of the motor cortex. To assess whether rhythmic sensory input-based plasticity might arise in natural settings, we exposed mice to environmental enrichment. We found that it resulted in somatosensory-evoked responses of increased amplitude, highlighting the influence of previous sensory experience in shaping sensory responses. Importantly, environmental enrichment-induced plasticity occluded further potentiation by rhythmic stimulation, indicating that both phenomena share common mechanisms. Overall, our results suggest that natural, rhythmic patterns of whisker activity can modify the cerebral processing of sensory information, providing a possible mechanism for learning during sensory perception.

show abstract

“…Quantitatively, the relative BOLD signal change was not significantly different during sustained TGN stimulation than during short TGN stimulation. Prolonged whisker stimulation modulates the magnitude of the responses generated by thalamo-cortical afferents of the stimulated pathway leading to a decreased activation within the barrel cortex (Quairiaux et al, 2007). These effects could explain the progressive decreased number of active pixels seen during a 10-minute TGN stimulation period.…”

Section: Tablementioning

confidence: 99%

Characterization of sustained BOLD activation in the rat barrel cortex and neurochemical consequences

Just¹,

Xin²,

Frenkel³

et al. 2013

NeuroImage

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

To date, only a couple of functional MR spectroscopy (fMRS) studies were conducted in rats. Due to the low temporal resolution of 1 H MRS techniques, prolonged stimulation paradigms are necessary for investigating the metabolic outcome in the rat brain during functional challenge. However, sustained activation of cortical areas is usually difficult to obtain due to neural adaptation. Anesthesia, habituation, high variability of the basal state metabolite concentrations as well as low concentrations of the metabolites of interest such as lactate (Lac), glucose (Glc) or γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) and small expected changes of metabolite concentrations need to be addressed. In the present study, the rat barrel cortex was reliably and reproducibly activated through sustained trigeminal nerve (TGN) stimulation. In addition, TGN stimulation induced significant positive changes in lactate (+1.01 μmol/g, p b 0.008) and glutamate (+0.92 μmol/g, p b 0.02) and significant negative aspartate changes (−0.63 μmol/g, p b 0.004) using functional 1 H MRS at 9.4 T in agreement with previous changes observed in human fMRS studies. Finally, for the first time, the dynamics of lactate, glucose, aspartate and glutamate concentrations during sustained somatosensory activation in rats using fMRS were assessed. These results allow demonstrating the feasibility of fMRS measurements during prolonged barrel cortex activation in rats.

show abstract

Modified Sensory Processing in the Barrel Cortex of the Adult Mouse After Chronic Whisker Stimulation

Abstract: Quairiaux C, Armstrong-James M, Welker E. Modified sensory processing in the barrel cortex of the adult mouse after chronic whisker stimulation.

Cited by 30 publications

References 128 publications

Comprehensive mapping of whisker-evoked responses reveals broad, sharply tuned thalamocortical input to layer 4 of barrel cortex

Comprehensive mapping of whisker-evoked responses reveals broad, sharply tuned thalamocortical input to layer 4 of barrel cortex

Long-Term Plasticity in Mouse Sensorimotor Circuits after Rhythmic Whisker Stimulation

Characterization of sustained BOLD activation in the rat barrel cortex and neurochemical consequences

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About