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Published on: October 28, 2018
Beyond maps: a dynamic view of the somatosensory system
1Department of Neurobiology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC 27710, USA. nicolelis@neuro.duke.edu
Summary
Mammalian tactile processing involves dynamic neural population interactions. This study reveals distributed representations and spatiotemporal receptive fields in the rat somatosensory system, encoding directional information.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Sensory Processing
- Computational Neuroscience
Background:
- Current tactile processing theories focus on single neurons.
- The central nervous system uses neuronal populations for tactile perception.
- New methods allow simultaneous recording of large neuronal populations.
Purpose of the Study:
- Investigate neuronal population interactions in the somatosensory system.
- Characterize tactile information processing across multiple brain stages.
- Examine dynamic representations during tactile stimulation.
Main Methods:
- Used chronic, simultaneous electrophysiological recordings in rats.
- Studied the trigeminal somatosensory system.
- Employed passive and active tactile stimulation with reversible sensory deprivation.
Main Results:
- Discovered dynamic and distributed tactile representations in the brainstem, thalamus, and somatosensory cortex.
- Identified broadly tuned neurons with multiwhisker receptive fields (RFs).
- Observed spatiotemporal shifts in thalamic RFs, suggesting directional encoding.
Conclusions:
- Somatosensory representations are dynamic and distributed across cortical and subcortical areas.
- Spatiotemporal interactions between neuronal populations are crucial for tactile processing.
- Neural representations are maintained by dynamic afferent interactions and can be rapidly altered.
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