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Information Coding through Adaptive Gating of Synchronized Thalamic Bursting.

Clarissa J Whitmire¹, Christian Waiblinger², Cornelius Schwarz³

¹Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University, Atlanta, GA 30332, USA.

|January 19, 2016

Summary

Thalamic firing modes adapt to sensory input, controlling information flow to the cortex. This adaptive gating balances detection and discrimination for enhanced sensory processing.

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Area of Science:

Neuroscience
Sensory Processing
Thalamocortical Circuits

Background:

The thalamus acts as a critical relay for sensory information to the cortex.
Thalamic burst and tonic firing modes are known to influence information transfer.
How sensory input dynamically regulates these firing modes remains unclear.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate how ongoing sensory input adaptively modulates thalamic firing modes.
To understand the role of thalamic firing in controlling information conveyed to cortical targets.
To elucidate the mechanisms underlying adaptive gating in the vibrissa thalamus (VPm).

Main Methods:

Single-unit recordings in the rat vibrissa thalamus (VPm).
Analysis of burst/tonic firing patterns and population synchronization.
Optogenetic manipulation of thalamic membrane potential.

Main Results:

Bottom-up sensory adaptation modulated thalamic burst/tonic firing.
Firing patterns shifted along a continuum, favoring detection or discrimination.
Population bursting synchronization was also influenced by adaptation.
Optogenetic data suggested interplay between membrane potential and synaptic drive.

Conclusions:

Thalamic firing modes are adaptively regulated by sensory input on fast timescales.
This adaptive gating mechanism fine-tunes information processing for detection versus discrimination.
Regulation involves an interplay of intrinsic thalamic properties and afferent synaptic input.
This provides a basis for sophisticated cortical computation.