Control of Somatosensory Cortical Processing by Thalamic Posterior Medial Nucleus: A New Role of Thalamus in Cortical Function

PloS One
Carlos CastejonAngel Nuñez

Abstract

Current knowledge of thalamocortical interaction comes mainly from studying lemniscal thalamic systems. Less is known about paralemniscal thalamic nuclei function. In the vibrissae system, the posterior medial nucleus (POm) is the corresponding paralemniscal nucleus. POm neurons project to L1 and L5A of the primary somatosensory cortex (S1) in the rat brain. It is known that L1 modifies sensory-evoked responses through control of intracortical excitability suggesting that L1 exerts an influence on whisker responses. Therefore, thalamocortical pathways targeting L1 could modulate cortical firing. Here, using a combination of electrophysiology and pharmacology in vivo, we have sought to determine how POm influences cortical processing. In our experiments, single unit recordings performed in urethane-anesthetized rats showed that POm imposes precise control on the magnitude and duration of supra- and infragranular barrel cortex whisker responses. Our findings demonstrated that L1 inputs from POm imposed a time and intensity dependent regulation on cortical sensory processing. Moreover, we found that blocking L1 GABAergic inhibition or blocking P/Q-type Ca2+ channels in L1 prevents POm adjustment of whisker responses in the barrel ...Continue Reading

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Citations

Jan 12, 2017·The Journal of Comparative Neurology·Jill R GlausierDavid A Lewis
Mar 3, 2020·Developmental Psychobiology·Daniil P AksenovAlexander Drobyshevsky
Oct 13, 2017·Frontiers in Neural Circuits·Diana Casas-TorremochaÁngel Núñez
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May 13, 2021·Journal of Neurophysiology·Yi Juin LiewGarrett B Stanley
Aug 2, 2021·Seminars in Cell & Developmental Biology·Ronan ChéreauAnthony Holtmaat

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