Posterior thalamic nucleus axon terminals have different structure and functional impact in the motor and somatosensory vibrissal cortices.

ABSTRACT: Rodents extract information about nearby objects from the movement of their whiskers through dynamic computations that are carried out by a network of forebrain structures that includes the thalamus and the primary sensory (S1BF) and motor (M1wk) whisker cortices. The posterior nucleus (Po), a higher order thalamic nucleus, is a key hub of this network, receiving cortical and brainstem sensory inputs and innervating both motor and sensory whisker-related cortical areas. In a recent study in rats, we showed that Po inputs differently impact sensory processing in S1BF and M1wk. Here, in C57BL/6 mice, we measured Po synaptic bouton layer distribution and size, compared cortical unit response latencies to "in vivo" Po activation, and pharmacologically examined the glutamatergic receptor mechan

SUBMITTER: Casas-Torremocha D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6509070 | biostudies-literature | 2019 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature