Optimization of Temporal Coding of Tactile Information in Rat Thalamus by Locus Coeruleus Activation.

ABSTRACT: The brainstem noradrenergic nucleus, the locus coeruleus (LC), exerts heavy influences on sensory processing, perception, and cognition through its diffuse projections throughout the brain. Previous studies have demonstrated that LC activation modulates the response and feature selectivity of thalamic relay neurons. However, the extent to which LC modulates the temporal coding of sensory information in the thalamus remains mostly unknown. Here, we found that LC stimulation significantly altered the temporal structure of the responses of the thalamic relay neurons to repeated whisker stimulation. A substantial portion of events (i.e., time points where the stimulus reliably evoked spikes as evidenced by dramatic elevations in the firing rate of the spike density function) were removed durin

SUBMITTER: Rodenkirch C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10886390 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature