Cortical control of whisker movement

Abstract

Event Abstract Back to Event Cortical control of whisker movement Ferenc Mátyás1*, Catherine Wacogne2, Boglarka Barsy3, Celine Mateo2, Rachel Aronoff2 and Carl Petersen2 1 HAS, EPFL SV BMI LSENS, Thalamus Research Group, Institute of Experimental Medicine, Hungary 2 Ecole Polytechniqe Federal de Lausanne (EPFL), Laboratory of Sensory Processing, Brain Mind Institute, Faculty of Life Science, Switzerland 3 HAS, EPFL SV BMI LSENS, Laboratory of Behavioural and Stress Studies, Institute of Experimental Medicine, Hungary Motor control plays an important role in whisker sensory perception. An exploring mouse actively moves its whiskers back and forth at high speed as if searching for objects. When a whisker contacts an object, responses are evoked in both sensory and motor cortices. The mouse whisker sensorimotor pathway therefore provides an attractive and relatively simple system for exploring active sensory processing and motor control. In order to investigate the cortical control of whisker movement, we began by mapping the movements evoked by intracortical microstimulation of the motor cortex in awake head-fixed mice. Whisker retraction and protraction movements were represented in neighbouring regions of the motor cortex. Through VSD imaging we found that whisker deflection evokes sensory responses in the motor cortex beginning in the retraction zone. Motor cortex receives a prominent columnar input from primary somatosensory cortex (S1), which is thought to mediate sensory responses in motor cortex. Indeed intracortical microstimulation of S1 cortex also evoked whisker retraction. One obvious possibility is that the whisker movements evoked by S1 stimulation might be driven indirectly via the motor cortex. However, complete blockade of motor cortex by TTX application failed to affect whisker retraction evoked by S1 stimulation. Conversely, blockade of S1 activity during stimulation of motor cortex changed whisker retraction into whisker protraction. These results therefore suggest two independent cortical mechanisms of whisker movement control. Whisker protraction is evoked by activity in primary motor cortex, whereas retraction is evoked by activity in primary somatosensory cortex. That S1 cortical activity drives whisker retraction might make intuitive sense – when the whisker contacts an object during protraction, the forward movement of the whisker rapidly stops and this might be mediated by activity in S1 cortex driving whisker retraction. Conference: IBRO International Workshop 2010, Pécs, Hungary, 21 Jan - 23 Jan, 2010. Presentation Type: Poster Presentation Topic: Sensory and motor systems Citation: Mátyás F, Wacogne C, Barsy B, Mateo C, Aronoff R and Petersen C (2010). Cortical control of whisker movement. Front. Neurosci. Conference Abstract: IBRO International Workshop 2010. doi: 10.3389/conf.fnins.2010.10.00245 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 05 May 2010; Published Online: 05 May 2010. * Correspondence: Ferenc Mátyás, HAS, EPFL SV BMI LSENS, Thalamus Research Group, Institute of Experimental Medicine, Budapest, Hungary, matyasf@koki.hu Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Ferenc Mátyás Catherine Wacogne Boglarka Barsy Celine Mateo Rachel Aronoff Carl Petersen Google Ferenc Mátyás Catherine Wacogne Boglarka Barsy Celine Mateo Rachel Aronoff Carl Petersen Google Scholar Ferenc Mátyás Catherine Wacogne Boglarka Barsy Celine Mateo Rachel Aronoff Carl Petersen PubMed Ferenc Mátyás Catherine Wacogne Boglarka Barsy Celine Mateo Rachel Aronoff Carl Petersen Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.