Abstract
BackgroundNerve cells program the brain codes to manage well-organized cognitions and behaviors. It remains unclear how a population of neurons and astrocytes work coordinately to encode their spatial and temporal activity patterns in response to frequency and intensity signals from sensory inputs.ResultsWith two-photon imaging and electrophysiology to record cellular functions in the barrel cortex in vivo, we analyzed the activity patterns of neurons and astrocytes in response to whisker stimuli with increasing frequency, an environmental stimulus pattern that rodents experience in the accelerated motion. Compared to the resting state, whisker stimulation caused barrel neurons and astrocytes to be activated more synchronously. An increased stimulus frequency up-regulated the activity strength of neurons and astrocytes as well as coordinated their interaction. The coordination among the barrel neurons and astrocytes was fulfilled by increasing their functional connections.ConclusionsOur study reveals that the nerve cells in the barrel cortex encode frequency messages in whisker tactile inputs through setting their activity coordination.
Highlights
Nerve cells program the brain codes to manage well-organized cognitions and behaviors
We subsequently studied how the neurons and astrocytes coordinately respond to the frequency messages by analyzing their activity strength and synchrony with twophoton calcium imaging in vivo
The activity of barrel neurons rises in response to an increased frequency of whisker tactile input By recording local field potentials (LFP) in the barrel cortex, we studied the responses of neurons to whisker stimuli in frequencies 8-to-12 Hz
Summary
Nerve cells program the brain codes to manage well-organized cognitions and behaviors. The emerging evidences demonstrate that the neurons and astrocytes are involved in the information processing in the central nervous system [4,5,6,7,8] Their communications are critical for the brain functions, such as the astrocytes are able to regulate the neuronal activities and plasticity [9,10,11,12]. How these neurons and astrocytes in local networks communicate coordinately to program the brain codes for well-organized cognition and behaviors remains unclear. Their temporal and spatial activity patterns in response to a single stimulation are well
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