Abstract
The rodent tactile vibrissae are innervated by several different types of touch sensory neurons. The central afferents of all touch neurons from one vibrissa collectively project to a columnar structure called a barrelette in the brainstem. Delineating how distinct types of sensors connect to second-order neurons within each barrelette is critical for understanding tactile information coding and processing. Using genetic and viral techniques, we labeled slowly adapting (SA) mechanosensory neurons, rapidly adapting (RA) mechanosensory neurons, afferent synapses, and second-order projection neurons with four different fluorescent markers to examine their connectivity. We discovered that within each vibrissa column, individual sensory neurons project collaterals to multiply distributed locations, inputs from SA and RA afferents are spatially intermixed without any discernible stereotypy or topography, and second-order projection neurons receive convergent SA and RA inputs. Our findings reveal a"one-to-many and many-to-one" connectivity scheme and the circuit architecture for tactile information processing at the first-order synapses.
Highlights
Humans use fingers to detect and discriminate diverse types of textures and forms in the natural and artificial world
The connectivity formed between these distinct types of touch neurons and the second-order neurons in the central nervous system (CNS) remains a mystery
We searched for molecular markers that may selectively label a specific type of trigeminal ganglion (TG) touch sensory neurons
Summary
Humans use fingers to detect and discriminate diverse types of textures and forms in the natural and artificial world. The connectivity formed between these distinct types of touch neurons and the second-order neurons in the central nervous system (CNS) remains a mystery. Solving this connectivity puzzle is critical for understanding of how the nervous system encodes and discriminates diverse textures and forms. *. Publisher's Disclaimer: This is a PDF file of an unedited manuscript that has been accepted for publication. The manuscript will undergo copyediting, typesetting, and review of the resulting proof before it is published in its final citable form. Please note that during the production process errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain
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