barrel cortex; paralemniscal circuits; synaptic plasticity; sensory perception; long-term potentiation; 2-photon microscopy
Chéreau Ronan, Bawa Tanika, Fodoulian Leon, Carleton Alan, Pagès Stéphane, Holtmaat Anthony (2020), Dynamic perceptual feature selectivity in primary somatosensory cortex upon reversal learning, in
Nature Communications, 11, 3245.
Vecchia Dania, Beltramo Riccardo, Vallone Fabio, Chéreau Ronan, Forli Angelo, Molano-Mazón Manuel, Bawa Tanika, Binini Noemi, Moretti Claudio, Holtmaat Anthony, Panzeri Stefano, Fellin Tommaso (2020), Temporal Sharpening of Sensory Responses by Layer V in the Mouse Primary Somatosensory Cortex, in
Current Biology, 30(9), 1589-1599.e10.
Voigt Fabian F., Kirschenbaum Daniel, Platonova Evgenia, Pagès Stéphane, Campbell Robert A. A., Kastli Rahel, Schaettin Martina, Egolf Ladan, van der Bourg Alexander, Bethge Philipp, Haenraets Karen, Frézel Noémie, Topilko Thomas, Perin Paola, Hillier Daniel, Hildebrand Sven, Schueth Anna, Roebroeck Alard, Roska Botond, Stoeckli Esther T., Pizzala Roberto, Renier Nicolas, Zeilhofer Hanns Ulrich, Karayannis Theofanis, et al. (2019), The mesoSPIM initiative: open-source light-sheet microscopes for imaging cleared tissue, in
Nature Methods, 16(11), 1105-1108.
Williams Leena E., Holtmaat Anthony (2019), Higher-Order Thalamocortical Inputs Gate Synaptic Long-Term Potentiation via Disinhibition, in
Neuron, 101(1), 91-102.e4.
Higher-Order Thalamocortical Inputs Gate Synaptic Long-Term Potentiation via Disinhibition
This repository contains the data used to generate the figures
Dynamic perceptual feature selectivity in primary somatosensory cortex upon reversal learning
This repository contains the data used to generate the figures and well as the main codes that were used for analyses.
Sensory perception depends on the integration of multisensory information. The cerebral cortex plays a critical role in this process in order to produce a relevant (behavioral) response. The cortex receives information from and sends information back to the thalamus, which is composed of various nuclei that interact with the cortex in a hierarchical order. Some nuclei primarily transmit incoming sensory information directly to the cortex, others primarily receive information from the cortex in order to return and disseminate it again over a large array of other cortical targets. The latter structures are often referred to as higher-order thalamic nuclei. Similarities in their anatomical layout and connectivity pattern across various sensory modalities suggest that higher-order thalamic nuclei share similar roles among all types of perception. However, how their output affects cortical activity and ultimately how it relates to sensory perception and learning remains poorly understood.In the current proposal we aim at investigating the role of the paralemniscal pathway, a higher-order thalamocortical circuit in the somatosensory system, in cortical plasticity and sensory perception. In contrast to the lemniscal pathway, the paralemniscal pathway receives most of its inputs from cortex, and in turn is thought to send modulatory input back into the primary somatosensory cortex (S1). The project is divided into three aims. First we will investigate how activity in the thalamocortical paralemniscal pathway shapes cortical plasticity in S1. This project stems from earlier work in which we had observed that the paralemniscal drive is essential for sensory-evoked synaptic long-term potentiation in the cortex. We will follow up on this work by investigating the circuit mechanisms of paralameniscal pathway-facilitated plasticity, and we will study how perturbing the activity of this circuit affects cortical plasticity in S1 over days to weeks in vivo. Second, we will investigate the relationship between paralemniscal input activity in S1 and reward-based sensory discrimination. We will correlate activity patterns in thalamocortical projections with particular aspects of the sensory percept and behavioral outcomes of a whisker-mediated texture-discrimination task. We will also study the effects of reducing paralemniscal activity on the discrimination performance in this task and the learning process leading up to it. Third, we will relate the aforementioned functions of the paralemniscal pathway to the anatomy of their synaptic connections in S1. We will characterize their morphology and dissect synaptic connectivity within local microcircuits that may be of importance for the presumed gating function of this pathway in layer 1 of S1. These aspects will be studied by utilizing optogenetic and chemogenetic tools, in vitro and in vivo electrophysiology, texture-discrimination tasks, two-photon laser scanning microscopy of neuronal activity (Ca2+ imaging) and neuronal structure, and focused ion beam scanning electron microscopy. Together, the proposal will reveal important information about the function of the paralemniscal system, and how it contributes to cortical plasticity and somatosensory perception, which is essential for advancing our understanding of the mechanisms underlying perceptual learning.