Optogenetic stimulation of cortex to map evoked whisker movements in awake head-restrained mice.

ABSTRACT: Whisker movements are used by rodents to touch objects in order to extract spatial and textural tactile information about their immediate surroundings. To understand the mechanisms of such active sensorimotor processing it is important to investigate whisker motor control. The activity of neurons in the neocortex affects whisker movements, but many aspects of the organization of cortical whisker motor control remain unknown. Here, we filmed whisker movements evoked by sequential optogenetic stimulation of different locations across the left dorsal sensorimotor cortex of awake head-restrained mice. Whisker movements were evoked by optogenetic stimulation of many regions in the dorsal sensorimotor cortex. Optogenetic stimulation of whisker sensory barrel cortex evoked retraction of the contr

SUBMITTER: Auffret M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5798595 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature