Convergence of visual and whisker responses in the primary somatosensory thalamus (ventral posterior medial region) of the mouse

Using in vivo electrophysiology, we find that a subset of whisker‐responsive neurons in the ventral posterior medial region (VPM) respond to visual stimuli. These light‐responsive neurons in the VPM are particularly sensitive to optic flow. Presentation of optic flow stimuli modulates the amplitude of concurrent whisker responses. Visual information reaches the VPM via a circuit encompassing the visual cortex. These data represent a new example of cross‐modal integration in the primary sensory thalamus.

[1]  Rasmus S Petersen,et al.  Transformation in the neural code for whisker deflection direction along the lemniscal pathway. , 2009, Journal of neurophysiology.

[2]  T. Stanford,et al.  Multisensory integration: current issues from the perspective of the single neuron , 2008, Nature Reviews Neuroscience.

[3]  W. M. Keck,et al.  Highly Selective Receptive Fields in Mouse Visual Cortex , 2008, The Journal of Neuroscience.

[4]  J. Driver,et al.  Sound-Induced Enhancement of Low-Intensity Vision: Multisensory Influences on Human Sensory-Specific Cortices and Thalamic Bodies Relate to Perceptual Enhancement of Visual Detection Sensitivity , 2010, The Journal of Neuroscience.

[5]  Hui Chen,et al.  Orientation-selective Responses in the Mouse Lateral Geniculate Nucleus , 2013, The Journal of Neuroscience.

[6]  N. Wittenburg,et al.  Transformation from temporal to rate coding in a somatosensory thalamocortical pathway , 2022 .

[7]  H. van der Loos,et al.  Barreloids in mouse somatosensory thalamus. , 1976, Neuroscience letters.

[8]  R. Luján.  Exploring the Thalamus and its Role in Cortical Function, S.M. Sherman, R.W. Guillery (Eds.). The MIT Press (2006), ISBN: 0-262-19532-1 , 2007 .

[9]  T. Ono,et al.  Auditory thalamus integrates visual inputs into behavioral gains , 2005, Nature Neuroscience.

[10]  Allan R. Jones,et al.  A mesoscale connectome of the mouse brain , 2014, Nature.

[11]  R. Frostig,et al.  Unimodal primary sensory cortices are directly connected by long-range horizontal projections in the rat sensory cortex , 2014, Front. Neuroanat..

[12]  C. W. Oyster,et al.  Direction-selective retinal ganglion cells and control of optokinetic nystagmus in the rabbit. , 1972, Vision research.

[13]  A. Ghazanfar,et al.  Is neocortex essentially multisensory? , 2006, Trends in Cognitive Sciences.

[14]  P. Waite.  Somatotopic organization of vibrissal responses in the ventro‐basal complex of the rat thalamus , 1973, The Journal of physiology.

[15]  A. Camp,et al.  Vestibular Interactions in the Thalamus , 2015, Front. Neural Circuits.

[16]  H B Barlow,et al.  Direction-Selective Units in Rabbit Retina: Distribution of Preferred Directions , 1967, Science.

[17]  Cristopher M Niell,et al.  Cell types, circuits, and receptive fields in the mouse visual cortex. , 2015, Annual review of neuroscience.

[18]  K. Deisseroth,et al.  Molecular and Cellular Approaches for Diversifying and Extending Optogenetics , 2010, Cell.

[19]  Annette E. Allen,et al.  Visual input to the mouse lateral posterior and posterior thalamic nuclei: photoreceptive origins and retinotopic order , 2016, The Journal of physiology.

[20]  J. Simpson,et al.  The accessory optic system of rabbit. I. Basic visual response properties. , 1988, Journal of neurophysiology.

[21]  Quanxin Wang,et al.  Area map of mouse visual cortex , 2007, The Journal of comparative neurology.

[22]  P. Barone,et al.  Cortical and Thalamic Pathways for Multisensory and Sensorimotor Interplay , 2012 .

[23]  Philipp Berens,et al.  CircStat: AMATLABToolbox for Circular Statistics , 2009, Journal of Statistical Software.

[24]  Giuliano Iurilli,et al.  Cellular and Synaptic Architecture of Multisensory Integration in the Mouse Neocortex , 2013, Neuron.

[25]  D H Brainard,et al.  The Psychophysics Toolbox. , 1997, Spatial vision.

[26]  R. Lucas,et al.  A Distinct Contribution of Short-Wavelength-Sensitive Cones to Light-Evoked Activity in the Mouse Pretectal Olivary Nucleus , 2011, The Journal of Neuroscience.

[27]  George Paxinos,et al.  The Mouse Brain in Stereotaxic Coordinates , 2001 .

[28]  Karel Svoboda,et al.  Neural coding in barrel cortex during whisker-guided locomotion , 2015, eLife.

[29]  Ovidiu F. Jurjuţ,et al.  Effects of Locomotion Extend throughout the Mouse Early Visual System , 2014, Current Biology.

[30]  L. P. Morin,et al.  Retinofugal projections in the mouse , 2014, The Journal of comparative neurology.

[31]  J. Konsman.  The mouse brain in stereotaxic coordinates Second Edition (Deluxe) By Paxinos G. and Franklin, K.B.J., Academic Press, New York, 2001, ISBN 0-12-547637-X , 2003, Psychoneuroendocrinology.

[32]  M. Carandini,et al.  Integration of visual motion and locomotion in mouse visual cortex , 2013, Nature Neuroscience.

[33]  F. Ebner,et al.  Somatic sensory responses in the rostral sector of the posterior group (POm) and in the ventral posterior medial nucleus (VPM) of the rat thalamus , 1992, The Journal of comparative neurology.

[34]  J. Gigg,et al.  Increased Hippocampal Excitability in the 3xTgAD Mouse Model for Alzheimer's Disease In Vivo , 2014, PloS one.

[35]  J. Simpson,et al.  The accessory optic system of rabbit. II. Spatial organization of direction selectivity. , 1988, Journal of neurophysiology.

[36]  Clifford B. Saper,et al.  A neural mechanism for exacerbation of headache by light , 2010, Nature Neuroscience.

[37]  G. Buzsáki,et al.  Temporal Interaction between Single Spikes and Complex Spike Bursts in Hippocampal Pyramidal Cells , 2001, Neuron.

[38]  Johannes C. Dahmen,et al.  Thalamic nuclei convey diverse contextual information to layer 1 of visual cortex , 2015, Nature Neuroscience.

[39]  Brigitte Röder,et al.  Oscillatory Entrainment of Primary Somatosensory Cortex Encodes Visual Control of Tactile Processing , 2013, The Journal of Neuroscience.

[40]  J. Driver,et al.  Multisensory Interplay Reveals Crossmodal Influences on ‘Sensory-Specific’ Brain Regions, Neural Responses, and Judgments , 2008, Neuron.

[41]  Alexander S. Ecker,et al.  Population code in mouse V1 facilitates read-out of natural scenes through increased sparseness , 2014, Nature Neuroscience.

[42]  E. Holst,et al.  Das Reafferenzprinzip , 2004, Naturwissenschaften.

[43]  G. Silberberg,et al.  Multisensory Integration in the Mouse Striatum , 2014, Neuron.