Abstract
A key question in systems neuroscience is to identify how sensory stimuli are represented in neuronal activity, and how the activity of sensory neurons in turn is “read out” by downstream neurons and give rise to behavior. The choice of a proper model system to address these questions, is therefore a crucial step. Over the past decade, the increasingly powerful array of experimental approaches that has become available in non-primate models (e.g., optogenetics and two-photon imaging) has spurred a renewed interest for the use of rodent models in systems neuroscience research. Here, I introduce the rodent whisker-mediated touch system as a structurally well-established and well-organized model system which, despite its simplicity, gives rise to complex behaviors. This system serves as a behaviorally efficient model system; known as nocturnal animals, along with their olfaction, rodents rely on their whisker-mediated touch system to collect information about their surrounding environment. Moreover, this system represents a well-studied circuitry with a somatotopic organization. At every stage of processing, one can identify anatomical and functional topographic maps of whiskers; “barrelettes” in the brainstem nuclei, “barreloids” in the sensory thalamus, and “barrels” in the cortex. This article provides a brief review on the basic anatomy and function of the whisker system in rodents.
Highlights
A fundamental goal of systems neuroscience is to identify how sensory stimuli are represented in neuronal activity, and how the activity of sensory neurons is “read out” by downstream neuronal structures to generate behavior
I first provide a brief introduction to the basic anatomy and the function of the whisker system in rodents
The intrinsic muscles protracting individual whiskers follow the whisking oscillation, while extrinsic muscles that move the mystacial pad follow the breathing rhythm. Both rhythms are phaselocked during sniffing (Deschênes et al, 2012; Kleinfeld et al, 2014). This is compatible with the unidirectional connections from the pre-Bötzinger complex— the inspiratory oscillator for respiration located in medulla adjacent to IRt (Feldman and Kam, 2015)—to vIRt, revealing the contribution of pre-Bötzinger complex to the mystacial pad control by driving the extrinsic muscles together with the potential contribution of putative parafacial neurons that receive their input from pre-Bötzinger complex (Deschênes et al, 2016)
Summary
A fundamental goal of systems neuroscience is to identify how sensory stimuli are represented in neuronal activity, and how the activity of sensory neurons is “read out” by downstream neuronal structures to generate behavior Researchers dissect this goal into the following questions: 1. The aim of this article is to introduce the rodent whisker-mediated touch system as a model system suitable for investigating the fundamental questions in systems neuroscience This model serves as an anatomically well-established and behaviorally efficient system; as nocturnal animals, rodents rely on their whisker-mediated touch system to collect information about their surrounding environment. This system represents a well-studied circuitry with an elegant structural organization. I first provide a brief introduction to the basic anatomy and the function of the whisker system in rodents
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