scholarly journals Repeated whisker stimulation evokes invariant neuronal responses in the dorsolateral striatum of anesthetized rats: a potential correlate of sensorimotor habits

2011 ◽  
Vol 105 (5) ◽  
pp. 2225-2238 ◽  
Author(s):  
Todd M. Mowery ◽  
Jon B. Harrold ◽  
Kevin D. Alloway
Keyword(s):  
Barrel Cortex ◽  
Neural Mechanism ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Original Position ◽  
Induced Response ◽  
Neuronal Responses ◽  
Dorsolateral Striatum ◽  
Stimulus Response ◽  
Computer Controlled ◽  
Whisker Stimulation

The dorsolateral striatum (DLS) receives extensive projections from primary somatosensory cortex (SI), but very few studies have used somesthetic stimulation to characterize the sensory coding properties of DLS neurons. In this study, we used computer-controlled whisker deflections to characterize the extracellular responses of DLS neurons in rats lightly anesthetized with isoflurane. When multiple whiskers were synchronously deflected by rapid back-and-forth movements, whisker-sensitive neurons in the DLS responded to both directions of movement. The latency and magnitude of these neuronal responses displayed very little variation with changes in the rate (2, 5, or 8 Hz) of whisker stimulation. Simultaneous recordings in SI barrel cortex and the DLS revealed important distinctions in the neuronal responses of these serially connected brain regions. In contrast to DLS neurons, SI neurons were activated by the initial deflection of the whiskers but did not respond when the whiskers moved back to their original position. As the rate of whisker stimulation increased, SI responsiveness declined, and the latencies of the responses increased. In fact, when whiskers were deflected at 5 or 8 Hz, many neurons in the DLS responded before the SI neurons. These results and earlier anatomic findings suggest that a component of the sensory-induced response in the DLS is mediated by inputs from the thalamus. Furthermore, the lack of sensory adaptation in the DLS may represent a critical part of the neural mechanism by which the DLS encodes stimulus-response associations that trigger motor habits and other stimulus-evoked behaviors that are not contingent on rewarded outcomes.

Olfactory modulation of barrel cortex activity during active whisking and passive whisker stimulation

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anthony Renard ◽  
Evan Harrell ◽  
Brice Bathallier
Keyword(s):  
Facial Nerve ◽  
Calcium Imaging ◽  
Tactile Stimulation ◽  
Barrel Cortex ◽  
Neuronal Responses ◽  
Population Activity ◽  
Tactile Information ◽  
Large Populations ◽  
Whisker Stimulation ◽  
The Impact

Abstract Rodents depend on olfaction and touch to meet many of their fundamental needs. The joint significance of these sensory systems is underscored by an intricate coupling between sniffing and whisking. However, the impact of simultaneous olfactory and tactile inputs on sensory representations in the cortex remains elusive. To study these interactions, we recorded large populations of barrel cortex neurons using 2-photon calcium imaging in head-fixed mice during olfactory and tactile stimulation. We find that odors alter barrel cortex activity in at least two ways, first by enhancing whisking, and second by central cross-talk that persists after whisking is abolished by facial nerve sectioning. Odors can either enhance or suppress barrel cortex neuronal responses, and while odor identity can be decoded from population activity, it does not interfere with the tactile representation. Thus, barrel cortex represents olfactory information which, in the absence of learned associations, is coded independently of tactile information.

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

2007 ◽  
Vol 97 (3) ◽  
pp. 2130-2147 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles Quairiaux ◽  
Michael Armstrong-James ◽  
Egbert Welker
Keyword(s):  
Sensory Processing ◽  
Adult Mouse ◽  
Barrel Cortex ◽  
Dynamic Range ◽  
Inhibitory Synapses ◽  
Neuronal Responses ◽  
Chronic Stimulation ◽  
Functional Changes ◽  
Whisker Stimulation ◽  
Sensory Responses

Chronic stimulation of a mystacial whisker follicle for 24 h induces structural and functional changes in layer IV of the corresponding barrel, with an insertion of new inhibitory synapses on spines and a depression of neuronal responses to the stimulated whisker. Under urethane anesthesia, we analyzed how sensory responses of single units are affected in layer IV and layers II & III of the stimulated barrel column as well as in adjacent columns. In the stimulated column, spatiotemporal characteristics of the activation evoked by the stimulated whisker are not altered, although spontaneous activity and response magnitude to the stimulated whisker are decreased. The sensitivity of neurons for the deflection of this whisker is not altered but the dynamic range of the response is reduced as tested by varying the amplitude and repetition rate of the deflection. Responses to deflection of nonstimulated whiskers remain unaltered with the exception of in-row whisker responses that are depressed in the column corresponding to the stimulated whisker. In adjacent nonstimulated columns, neuronal activity remains unaltered except for a diminished response of units in layer II/III to deflection of the stimulated whisker. From these results we propose that an increased inhibition within the stimulated barrel reduced the magnitude of its excitatory output and accordingly the flow of excitation toward layers II & III and the subsequent spread into adjacent columns. In addition, the period of uncorrelated activity between pathways from the stimulated and nonstimulated whiskers weakens synaptic inputs from in-row whiskers in the stimulated barrel column.

Similarity of Direction Tuning Among Responses to Stimulation of Different Whiskers in Neurons of Rat Barrel Cortex

2005 ◽  
Vol 94 (3) ◽  
pp. 2004-2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hiroyuki Kida ◽  
Satoshi Shimegi ◽  
Hiromichi Sato
Keyword(s):  
Barrel Cortex ◽  
Direction Selectivity ◽  
Specific Response ◽  
Neuronal Responses ◽  
Preferred Direction ◽  
Fast Spiking ◽  
Whisker Stimulation ◽  
Direction Tuning ◽  
Network Mechanism ◽  
Stimulation Of

Cells in the rat barrel cortex exhibit stimulus-specific response properties. To understand the network mechanism of direction selectivity in response to facial whisker deflection, we examined direction selectivity of neuronal responses to single- and multiwhisker stimulations. In the case of regular-spiking units, i.e., putative excitatory cells, direction preferences were quite similar between responses to single-whisker stimulation of the principal and adjacent whiskers. In multiwhisker stimulation at short (≤5 ms) interstimulus intervals (ISIs), response facilitation was evoked only when the whiskers were deflected to the preferred direction of the response to the single whisker stimulation. These results suggest that there are neuronal networks among cells with different whisker preferences but with a common direction preference that could be the neuronal basis of the direction-selective facilitation of the response to multiwhisker stimulation. In contrast, multiwhisker stimulation at long (≥6 ms) ISIs caused non–direction-selective suppression of the response to the second stimulus. In the case of fast-spiking units, i.e., putative inhibitory cells, poor direction selectivity was exhibited. Thus stimulus direction is represented as the direction-selective responses to the single- and multiwhisker stimulations of putative excitatory cells rather than those of putative inhibitory cells.

scholarly journals Stimulus-Induced Intercolumnar Synchronization of Neuronal Activity in Rat Barrel Cortex: A Laminar Analysis

2004 ◽  
Vol 92 (3) ◽  
pp. 1464-1478 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mengliang Zhang ◽  
Kevin D. Alloway
Keyword(s):  
Neuronal Activity ◽  
Cross Correlation ◽  
Barrel Cortex ◽  
Sensory Information ◽  
Stimulus Frequency ◽  
Correlation Coefficients ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Neuronal Synchronization ◽  
Cross Correlation Analysis ◽  
Whisker Stimulation

We used cross-correlation analysis to characterize the coordination of stimulus-induced neuronal activity in the primary somatosensory barrel cortex of isoflurane-anesthetized rats. On each trial, multiple whiskers were simultaneously deflected at frequencies that corresponded to 2, 5, 8, or 11 Hz. Among 476 neuron pairs that we examined, 342 (71.8%) displayed significant peaks of synchronized activity that exceeded the 99.9% confidence limits. The incidence and strength of these functional associations varied across different cortical layers. Only 52.9% of neuron pairs in layer IV displayed synchronized responses, whereas 84.1% of the infragranular neuron pairs were synchronized during whisker stimulation. Neuronal synchronization was strongest in the infragranular layers, weakest in layer IV, and varied according to the columnar configuration of the neuron pairs. Thus correlation coefficients were largest for neuron pairs in the same whisker barrel row but were smallest for neurons in different rows and arcs. Spontaneous activity in the infragranular layers was also synchronized to a greater degree than in the other layers. Although infragranular neuron pairs displayed similar amounts of synchronization in response to each stimulus frequency, granular and supragranular neurons were synchronized mainly during stimulation at 2 or 5 Hz. These results are consistent with previous studies indicating that infragranular neurons have intrinsic properties that facilitate synchronized activity, and they suggest that neuronal synchronization plays an important role in transmitting sensory information to other cortical or subcortical brain regions.

scholarly journals Hierarchical decision processes that operate over distinct timescales underlie choice and changes in strategy

2016 ◽  
Vol 113 (31) ◽  
pp. E4531-E4540 ◽  
Author(s):  
Braden A. Purcell ◽  
Roozbeh Kiani
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Neural Mechanism ◽  
Decision Processes ◽  
Response Strategy ◽  
Limited Information ◽  
Decision Strategy ◽  
Stimulus Response ◽  
Hierarchical Decision ◽  
The Right ◽  
High Level

Decision-making in a natural environment depends on a hierarchy of interacting decision processes. A high-level strategy guides ongoing choices, and the outcomes of those choices determine whether or not the strategy should change. When the right decision strategy is uncertain, as in most natural settings, feedback becomes ambiguous because negative outcomes may be due to limited information or bad strategy. Disambiguating the cause of feedback requires active inference and is key to updating the strategy. We hypothesize that the expected accuracy of a choice plays a crucial rule in this inference, and setting the strategy depends on integration of outcome and expectations across choices. We test this hypothesis with a task in which subjects report the net direction of random dot kinematograms with varying difficulty while the correct stimulus−response association undergoes invisible and unpredictable switches every few trials. We show that subjects treat negative feedback as evidence for a switch but weigh it with their expected accuracy. Subjects accumulate switch evidence (in units of log-likelihood ratio) across trials and update their response strategy when accumulated evidence reaches a bound. A computational framework based on these principles quantitatively explains all aspects of the behavior, providing a plausible neural mechanism for the implementation of hierarchical multiscale decision processes. We suggest that a similar neural computation—bounded accumulation of evidence—underlies both the choice and switches in the strategy that govern the choice, and that expected accuracy of a choice represents a key link between the levels of the decision-making hierarchy.

Neural Mechanisms of Negative Symptoms

1989 ◽  
Vol 155 (S7) ◽  
pp. 93-98 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nancy C. Andreasen
Keyword(s):  
Frontal Cortex ◽  
Negative Symptoms ◽  
Neural Mechanism ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Brain Dysfunction ◽  
Neural Mechanisms ◽  
Dementia Praecox ◽  
Intellectual Abilities ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Psychic Mechanisms

When Kraepelin originally defined and described dementia praecox, he assumed that it was due to some type of neural mechanism. He hypothesised that abnormalities could occur in a variety of brain regions, including the prefrontal, auditory, and language regions of the cortex. Many members of his department, including Alzheimer and Nissl, were actively involved in the search for the neuropathological lesions that would characterise schizophrenia. Although Kraepelin did not use the term ‘negative symptoms', he describes them comprehensively and states explicitly that he believes the symptoms of schizophrenia can be explained in terms of brain dysfunction:“If it should be confirmed that the disease attacks by preference the frontal areas of the brain, the central convolutions and central lobes, this distribution would in a certain measure agree with our present views about the site of the psychic mechanisms which are principally injured by the disease. On various grounds, it is easy to believe that the frontal cortex, which is specially well developed in man, stands in closer relation to his higher intellectual abilities, and these are the faculties which in our patients invariably suffer profound loss in contrast to memory and acquired ability.” Kraepelin (1919, p. 219)

scholarly journals A Roadmap for Understanding Memory: Decomposing Cognitive Processes into Operations and Representations

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rosemary Cowell ◽  
Morgan Barense ◽  
Patrick Sadil
Keyword(s):  
Division Of Labor ◽  
Cognitive Functions ◽  
Declarative Memory ◽  
Behavioral Control ◽  
Representational Content ◽  
Neural Mechanism ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Medial Temporal Lobes ◽  
Pattern Completion ◽  
High Level

Thanks to patients Phineas Gage and Henry Molaison, we have long known that behavioral control depends on the frontal lobes, whereas declarative memory depends on the medial temporal lobes. For decades, cognitive functions – behavioral control, declarative memory – have served as labels for characterizing the division of labor in cortex. This approach has made enormous contributions to understanding how the brain enables the mind, providing a systems-level explanation of brain function that constrains lower-level investigations of neural mechanism. Today, the approach has evolved such that functional labels are often applied to brain networks rather than focal brain regions. Furthermore, the labels have diversified to include both broadly-defined cognitive functions (declarative memory, visual perception) and more circumscribed mental processes (recollection, familiarity, priming). We ask whether a process – a high-level mental phenomenon corresponding to an introspectively-identifiable cognitive event – is the most productive label for dissecting memory. For example, the process of recollection conflates a neurocomputational operation (pattern completion-based retrieval) with a class of representational content (associative, high-dimensional, episodic-like memories). Because a full theory of memory must identify operations and representations separately, and specify how they interact, we argue that processes like recollection constitute inadequate labels for characterizing neural mechanisms. Instead, we advocate considering the component operations and representations of mnemonic processes in isolation, when examining their neural underpinnings. For the neuroanatomical organization of memory, the evidence suggests that pattern completion is recapitulated widely across cortex, but the division of labor between cortical sites can be explained by representational content.

scholarly journals Pre-stimulus phase and amplitude regulation of phase-locked responses are maximized in the critical state

eLife ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arthur-Ervin Avramiea ◽  
Richard Hardstone ◽  
Jan-Matthis Lueckmann ◽  
Jan Bím ◽  
Huibert D Mansvelder ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Computational Model ◽  
Critical State ◽  
Global Dynamics ◽  
Critical Dynamics ◽  
Neuronal Responses ◽  
Scale Free ◽  
Stimulus Response ◽  
Functional States ◽  
The Brain

Understanding why identical stimuli give differing neuronal responses and percepts is a central challenge in research on attention and consciousness. Ongoing oscillations reflect functional states that bias processing of incoming signals through amplitude and phase. It is not known, however, whether the effect of phase or amplitude on stimulus processing depends on the long-term global dynamics of the networks generating the oscillations. Here, we show, using a computational model, that the ability of networks to regulate stimulus response based on pre-stimulus activity requires near-critical dynamics—a dynamical state that emerges from networks with balanced excitation and inhibition, and that is characterized by scale-free fluctuations. We also find that networks exhibiting critical oscillations produce differing responses to the largest range of stimulus intensities. Thus, the brain may bring its dynamics close to the critical state whenever such network versatility is required.

scholarly journals Infragranular barrel cortex activity is enhanced with learning

2012 ◽  
Vol 108 (5) ◽  
pp. 1278-1287 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebekah L. Ward ◽  
Luke C. Flores ◽  
John F. Disterhoft
Keyword(s):  
Single Unit ◽  
Barrel Cortex ◽  
Eyeblink Conditioning ◽  
Sensory Cortex ◽  
Learning Criterion ◽  
Extracellular Recordings ◽  
Primary Sensory Cortex ◽  
Whisker Stimulation ◽  
Trace Eyeblink Conditioning

The barrel cortex (BC) is essential for the acquisition of whisker-signaled trace eyeblink conditioning and shows learning-related expansion of the trained barrels after the acquisition of a whisker-signaled task. Most previous research examining the role of the BC in learning has focused on anatomic changes in the layer IV representation of the cortical barrels. We studied single-unit extracellular recordings from individual neurons in layers V and VI of the BC as rabbits acquired the whisker-signaled trace eyeblink conditioning task. Neurons in layers V and VI in both conditioned and pseudoconditioned animals robustly responded to whisker stimulation, but neurons in conditioned animals showed a significant enhancement in responsiveness in concert with learning. Learning-related changes in firing rate occurred as early as the day of learning criterion within the infragranular layers of the primary sensory cortex.

scholarly journals The Role of Hp-NCL Network in Goal-Directed Routing Information Encoding of Bird: A Review

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (9) ◽  
pp. 617
Author(s):  
Mengmeng Li ◽  
Zhigang Shang ◽  
Kun Zhao ◽  
Shuguan Cheng ◽  
Hong Wan
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Navigation ◽  
Neural Mechanism ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Current Situation ◽  
Cooperative Interaction ◽  
Local Network ◽  
Avian Brain ◽  
Information Encoding ◽  
Goal Directed Behavior

Goal-directed navigation is a crucial behavior for the survival of animals, especially for the birds having extraordinary spatial navigation ability. In the studies of the neural mechanism of the goal-directed behavior, especially involving the information encoding mechanism of the route, the hippocampus (Hp) and nidopallium caudalle (NCL) of the avian brain are the famous regions that play important roles. Therefore, they have been widely concerned and a series of studies surrounding them have increased our understandings of the navigation mechanism of birds in recent years. In this paper, we focus on the studies of the information encoding mechanism of the route in the avian goal-directed behavior. We first summarize and introduce the related studies on the role of the Hp and NCL for goal-directed behavior comprehensively. Furthermore, we review the related cooperative interaction studies about the Hp-NCL local network and other relevant brain regions supporting the goal-directed routing information encoding. Finally, we summarize the current situation and prospect the existing important questions in this field. We hope this paper can spark fresh thinking for the following research on routing information encoding mechanism of birds.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document