Publication Date:
1995-06-02
Description:
Neural ensemble processing of sensorimotor information during behavior was investigated by simultaneously recording up to 48 single neurons at multiple relays of the rat trigeminal somatosensory system. Cortical, thalamic, and brainstem neurons exhibited widespread 7- to 12-hertz synchronous oscillations, which began during attentive immobility and reliably predicted the imminent onset of rhythmic whisker twitching. Each oscillatory cycle began as a traveling wave of neural activity in the cortex that then spread to the thalamus. Just before the onset of rhythmic whisker twitching, the oscillations spread to the spinal trigeminal brainstem complex. Thereafter, the oscillations at all levels were synchronous with whisker protraction. Neural structures manifesting these rhythms also exhibited distributed spatiotemporal patterns of neuronal ensemble activity in response to tactile stimulation. Thus, multilevel synchronous activity in this system may encode not only sensory information but also the onset and temporal domain of tactile exploratory movements.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Nicolelis, M A -- Baccala, L A -- Lin, R C -- Chapin, J K -- DE11121-01/DE/NIDCR NIH HHS/ -- NS-26722/NS/NINDS NIH HHS/ -- NS-29161/NS/NINDS NIH HHS/ -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 1995 Jun 2;268(5215):1353-8.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, Medical College of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7761855" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉
Keywords:
Animals
;
Brain/*physiology
;
Electromyography
;
Electrophysiology
;
Motor Cortex/physiology
;
Nerve Net/*physiology
;
Neural Pathways
;
Neurons, Afferent/*physiology
;
Rats
;
Somatosensory Cortex/physiology
;
Thalamic Nuclei/physiology
;
Touch/*physiology
;
Trigeminal Ganglion/physiology
;
Trigeminal Nuclei/physiology
;
Vibrissae/*innervation/physiology
Print ISSN:
0036-8075
Electronic ISSN:
1095-9203
Topics:
Biology
,
Chemistry and Pharmacology
,
Computer Science
,
Medicine
,
Natural Sciences in General
,
Physics
Permalink