Sensory Regions Research Articles

0403 Functional Connectivity of Brain Networks Predicts Polysomnographically Measured Sleep

Abstract Introduction The arousal hypothesis predicts that increased cognitive and somatic arousal interfere with sleep among patients with insomnia. Evidence suggests that the connectivity of the brain’s default mode network (DMN) may play an important role in this process. Here, we examined the association between whole cortex resting state functional connectivity and subsequent polysomnographically (PSG) assessed sleep the same night in a sleep laboratory among individuals with documented insomnia. Methods We collected data from twenty participants (12 female; age=26.9, SD=6.6 years) meeting criteria for insomnia/sleep disorder. Each participant completed a baseline resting state functional connectivity (rsFC) scan in the early evening and then retired to their own private bedroom in a sleep laboratory. Participants were monitored throughout the night with polysomnography and evaluated for various sleep parameters. Data were analyzed using the CONN Toolbox, v17f. Total Sleep Time from PSG was extracted and entered as a covariate into the whole brain connectivity analysis. Connectivity across the regions identified in the Automated Anatomical Labeling Atlas was assessed using the ROI-to-ROI analysis approach, with a peak signal threshold of p < .001 (uncorrected) and False-Discovery-Rate (FDR) correction seed level correction. We focused on the anterior and posterior medial regions of the DMN. Results The analysis showed that TST was significantly negatively correlated with numerous regions throughout the brain (p<.05, FDR corrected), while there were no regions of positive connectivity. Consistent with our hypothesis, we found that greater TST was associated with anticorrelated activation between the anterior cingulate cortex and regions associated with language processing (i.e., Heschl’s gyrus), sensory motor function (precentral and postcentral gyri), superior temporal gyrus, parietal occipital gyrus, temporal pole, and occipital cortex. Conclusion Findings suggest that the connectivity of the anterior DMN with language, sensory, motor, and emotional processing regions is related to subsequent PSG measured sleep. Prior work has suggested that stronger anticorrelations between the DMN and task-positive regions is associated with better cognitive performance. Our findings also suggest that stronger anticorrelations between the anterior DMN and these other cortical regions are highly related to sleep among individuals with insomnia. Support (if any) W81XWH2010173

Content representation of tactile mental imagery in primary somatosensory cortex.

The imagination of tactile stimulation has been shown to activate primary somatosensory cortex (SI) with a somatotopic specificity akin to that seen during the perception of tactile stimuli. Using fMRI and MVPA, we investigate if this recruitment of sensory regions also reflects content-specific activation, i.e. whether the activation in SI is specific to the mental content participants imagined. To this end, healthy volunteers (n=21) either perceived or imagined three types of vibrotactile stimuli (mental content) while fMRI data was acquired. Independent of the content, during tactile mental imagery we found activation of fronto-parietal regions, supplemented with activation in the contralateral BA2 subregion of SI, replicating previous reports. While the imagery of the three different stimuli did not reveal univariate activation differences, using multivariate pattern classification we were able to decode the imagined stimulus type from BA2. Moreover, cross-classification revealed that tactile imagery elicits activation patterns similar to those evoked by the perception of the respective stimuli. These findings promote that mental tactile imagery involves the recruitment of content-specific activation patterns in sensory cortices, namely in SI.Significance StatementIt has been shown previously that mental imagery of sensations in different modalities can activate respective primary sensory cortices (visual/auditory/tactile). However, a relation of such activation to the imagined mental content was mainly shown for the visual system. Here, we generalize this concept to the somatosensory domain by showing that content-specific activation during tactile mental imagery can be found in primary somatosensory cortex subarea BA2. Most importantly, we show that tactile imagery elicits activation patterns similar to those evoked by sensory stimulation. Our results provide further evidence that sensory recruitment is among the brain processes that allow conscious information representation.

Whole-brain mapping of long-range inputs to the VIP-expressing inhibitory neurons in the primary motor cortex.

The primary motor cortex (MOp) is an important site for motor skill learning. Interestingly, neurons in MOp possess reward-related activity, presumably to facilitate reward-based motor learning. While pyramidal neurons (PNs) and different subtypes of GABAergic inhibitory interneurons (INs) in MOp all undergo cell-type specific plastic changes during motor learning, the vasoactive intestinal peptide-expressing inhibitory interneurons (VIP-INs) in MOp have been shown to preferentially respond to reward and play a critical role in the early phases of motor learning by triggering local circuit plasticity. To understand how VIP-INs might integrate various streams of information, such as sensory, pre-motor, and reward-related inputs, to regulate local plasticity in MOp, we performed monosynaptic rabies tracing experiments and employed an automated cell counting pipeline to generate a comprehensive map of brain-wide inputs to VIP-INs in MOp. We then compared this input profile to the brain-wide inputs to somatostatin-expressing inhibitory interneurons (SST-INs) and parvalbumin-expressing inhibitory interneurons (PV-INs) in MOp. We found that while all cell types received major inputs from sensory, motor, and prefrontal cortical regions, as well as from various thalamic nuclei, VIP-INs received more inputs from the orbital frontal cortex (ORB) - a region associated with reinforcement learning and value predictions. Our findings provide insight on how the brain leverages microcircuit motifs by both integrating and partitioning different streams of long-range input to modulate local circuit activity and plasticity.

Arousal and locomotion differently modulate activity of somatostatin neurons across cortex.

Arousal powerfully influences cortical activity, in part by modulating local inhibitory circuits. Somatostatin-expressing inhibitory interneurons (SOM) are particularly well-situated to shape local population activity in response to shifts in arousal, yet the relationship between arousal state and SOM activity has not been characterized outside of sensory cortex. To determine whether SOM activity is similarly modulated by behavioral state across different levels of the cortical processing hierarchy, we compared the behavioral modulation of SOM neurons in auditory cortex (AC), a primary sensory region, and posterior parietal cortex (PPC), an association-level region of cortex, in mice. Behavioral state modulated activity differently in AC and PPC. In PPC, transitions to high arousal were accompanied by large increases in activity across the full PPC neural population, especially in SOM neurons. In AC, arousal transitions led to more subtle changes in overall activity, as individual SOM and Non-SOM neurons could be either positively or negatively modulated during transitions to high arousal states. The coding of sensory information in population activity was enhanced during periods of high arousal in AC, but not PPC. Our findings suggest unique relationships between activity in local circuits and arousal across cortex, which may be tailored to the roles of specific cortical regions in sensory processing or the control of behavior.Significance statementThe effects of arousal on brain networks are profound, but vary across regions. Somatostatin neurons may carry out some of the effects of arousal on local network activity in sensory cortex, by modulating response gain and decorrelating population activity. However, SOM neurons have not been well studied outside of sensory cortex, and so it is unknown whether SOM neurons are similarly affected by shifts in brain state throughout the cortex. Here, we have revealed specialization in the relationship between arousal and activity in SOM neurons that could contribute to the diversity of arousal-related impacts on local computation across cortical regions.

484. Autism is Associated With Reduced Gray Matter Volume in Sensory Brain Regions Among Males but Not Females

484. Autism is Associated With Reduced Gray Matter Volume in Sensory Brain Regions Among Males but Not Females

Steady state visual evoked potentials reveal a signature of the pitch-size crossmodal association in visual cortex

Crossmodal correspondences describe our tendency to associate sensory features from different modalities with each other, such as the pitch of a sound with the size of a visual object. While such crossmodal correspondences (or associations) are described in many behavioural studies their neurophysiological correlates remain unclear. Under the current working model of multisensory perception both a low- and a high-level account seem plausible. That is, the neurophysiological processes shaping these associations could commence in low-level sensory regions, or may predominantly emerge in high-level association regions of semantic and object identification networks. We exploited steady-state visual evoked potentials (SSVEP) to directly probe this question, focusing on the associations between pitch and the visual features of size, hue or chromatic saturation. We found that SSVEPs over occipital regions are sensitive to the congruency between pitch and size, and a source analysis pointed to an origin around primary visual cortices. We speculate that this signature of the pitch-size association in low-level visual cortices reflects the successful pairing of congruent visual and acoustic object properties and may contribute to establishing causal relations between multisensory objects. Besides this, our study also provides a paradigm can be exploited to study other crossmodal associations involving visual stimuli in the future.

369 Successful Image-Guided Stereotactic Radiosurgery for Treatment of Spasticity

INTRODUCTION: Close to 100 million people worldwide suffer the sequelae of severe trauma to the brain or spinal cord. Spasticity and related pain are a common and debilitating long-term complication in survivors. Conventional surgical treatments such as baclofen pumps & cordotomy are effective but offered to a very limited number of patients. METHODS: Four patients with refractory spasticity and related pain due to traumatic brain and/or spinal cord injury, brain and/or spinal cord surgery, and stroke underwent stereotactic irradiation of selected cervical or lumbar roots. The treatment was delivered to the post-ganglionic sensory segment of cervical roots or to the dorsolateral sensory region of lumbar roots. Selection of the irradiated roots was based on somatotopic distribution of spasticity and related pain as well as EMG findings. Modified Ashworth Scale (MAS) and Visual Analogue Score (VAS) have been used to assess spasticity and related pain levels before and after the procedure. RESULTS: The treatment was well tolerated. Marked symptomatic relief on spasticity and pain was found in all the patients. After 2 years, the median reduction of MAS score was 50%. The mean reduction of MAS and VAS was, respectively, 43,7% and 64.3%. CONCLUSIONS: SRS of spinal nerve roots appears to be a safe and effective noninvasive treatment for patients with spasticity and pain caused by brain or spinal cord injury. This technique provides a useful option for the treatment of a wide variety of patients suffering from the long-term sequelae of neurological injury and can broadly expand the ability to treat patients currently orphan of treatment. A randomized, sham-controlled prospective study is underway to provide further insight.

Associations between thalamocortical functional connectivity and sensory over-responsivity in infants at high likelihood for ASD.

Despite growing evidence implicating thalamic functional connectivity atypicalities in autism spectrum disorder (ASD), it remains unclear how such alterations emerge early in human development. Because the thalamus plays a critical role in sensory processing and neocortical organization early in life, its connectivity with other cortical regions could be key for studying the early onset of core ASD symptoms. Here, we investigated emerging thalamocortical functional connectivity in infants at high (HL) and typical (TL) familial likelihood for ASD in early and late infancy. We report significant thalamo-limbic hyperconnectivity in 1.5-month-old HL infants, and thalamo-cortical hypoconnectivity in prefrontal and motor regions in 9-month-old HL infants. Importantly, early sensory over-responsivity (SOR) symptoms in HL infants predicted a direct trade-off in thalamic connectivity whereby stronger thalamic connectivity with primary sensory regions and basal ganglia was inversely related to connectivity with higher order cortices. This trade-off suggests that ASD may be characterized by early differences in thalamic gating. The patterns reported here could directly underlie atypical sensory processing and attention to social vs. nonsocial stimuli observed in ASD. These findings lend support to a theoretical framework of ASD whereby early disruptions in sensorimotor processing and attentional biases early in life may cascade into core ASD symptomatology.

Functional and structural brain network development in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a prevalent childhood neurodevelopmental disorder. Given the profound brain changes that occur during childhood and adolescence, it is important to examine longitudinal changes of both functional and structural brain connectivity across development in ADHD. This study aimed to examine the development of functional and structural connectivity in children with ADHD compared to controls using graph metrics. One hundred and seventy five individuals (91 children with ADHD and 84 non-ADHD controls) participated in a longitudinal neuroimaging study with up to three waves. Graph metrics were derived from 370 resting state fMRI (197 Control, 173 ADHD) and 297 diffusion weighted imaging data (152 Control, 145 ADHD) acquired between the ages of 9 and 14. For functional connectivity, children with ADHD (compared to typically developing children) showed lower degree, local efficiency and betweenness centrality predominantly in parietal, temporal and visual cortices and higher degree, local efficiency and betweenness centrality in frontal, parietal, and temporal cortices. For structural connectivity, children with ADHD had lower local efficiency in parietal and temporal cortices and, higher degree and betweenness centrality in frontal, parietal and temporal cortices. Further, differential developmental trajectories of functional and structural connectivity for graph measures were observed in higher-order cognitive and sensory regions. Our findings show that topology of functional and structural connectomes matures differently between typically developing controls and children with ADHD during childhood and adolescence. Specifically, functional and structural neural circuits associated with sensory and various higher order cognitive functions are altered in children with ADHD.

Extra-hippocampal contributions to pattern separation.

Pattern separation, or the process by which highly similar stimuli or experiences in memory are represented by non-overlapping neural ensembles, has typically been ascribed to processes supported by the hippocampus. Converging evidence from a wide range of studies, however, suggests that pattern separation is a multistage process supported by a network of brain regions. Based on this evidence, considered together with related findings from the interference resolution literature, we propose the 'cortico-hippocampal pattern separation' (CHiPS) framework, which asserts that brain regions involved in cognitive control play a significant role in pattern separation. Particularly, these regions may contribute to pattern separation by (1) resolving interference in sensory regions that project to the hippocampus, thus regulating its cortical input, or (2) directly modulating hippocampal processes in accordance with task demands. Considering recent interest in how hippocampal operations are modulated by goal states likely represented and regulated by extra-hippocampal regions, we argue that pattern separation is similarly supported by neocortical-hippocampal interactions.

Ascending neurons convey behavioral state to integrative sensory and action selection brain regions

Knowing one’s own behavioral state has long been theorized as critical for contextualizing dynamic sensory cues and identifying appropriate future behaviors. Ascending neurons (ANs) in the motor system that project to the brain are well positioned to provide such behavioral state signals. However, what ANs encode and where they convey these signals remains largely unknown. Here, through large-scale functional imaging in behaving animals and morphological quantification, we report the behavioral encoding and brain targeting of hundreds of genetically identifiable ANs in the adult fly, Drosophila melanogaster. We reveal that ANs encode behavioral states, specifically conveying self-motion to the anterior ventrolateral protocerebrum, an integrative sensory hub, as well as discrete actions to the gnathal ganglia, a locus for action selection. Additionally, AN projection patterns within the motor system are predictive of their encoding. Thus, ascending populations are well poised to inform distinct brain hubs of self-motion and ongoing behaviors and may provide an important substrate for computations that are required for adaptive behavior.

Decoding of Working Memory Contents in Auditory Cortex Is Not Distractor-Resistant.

Working memory enables the temporary storage of relevant information in the service of behavior. Neuroimaging studies have suggested that sensory cortex is involved in maintaining contents in working memory. This raised the question of how sensory regions maintain memory representations during the exposure to distracting stimuli. Multivariate pattern analysis of fMRI signals in visual cortex has shown that the contents of visual working memory could be decoded concurrently with passively viewed distractors. The present fMRI study tested whether this finding extends to auditory working memory and to active distractor processing. We asked participants to memorize the pitch of a target sound and to compare it with a probe sound presented after a 13 s delay period. In separate conditions, we compared a blank delay phase (no distraction) with either passive listening to, or active processing of, an auditory distractor presented throughout the memory delay. Consistent with previous reports, pitch-specific memory information could be decoded in auditory cortex during the delay in trials without distraction. In contrast, decoding of target sounds in early auditory cortex dropped to chance level during both passive and active distraction. This was paralleled by memory performance decrements under distraction. Extending the analyses beyond sensory cortex yielded some evidence for memory content-specific activity in inferior frontal and superior parietal cortex during active distraction. In summary, while our findings question the involvement of early auditory cortex in the maintenance of distractor-resistant working memory contents, further research should elucidate the role of hierarchically higher regions.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Information about sensory features held in working memory can be read out from hemodynamic activity recorded in human sensory cortices. Moreover, visual cortex can in parallel store visual content and process newly incoming, task-irrelevant visual input. The present study investigated the role of auditory cortex for working memory maintenance under distraction. While memorized sound frequencies could be decoded in auditory cortex in the absence of distraction, auditory distraction during the delay phase impaired memory performance and prevented decoding of information stored in working memory. Apparently, early auditory cortex is not sufficient to represent working memory contents under distraction that impairs performance. However, exploratory analyses indicated that, under distraction, higher-order frontal and parietal regions might contribute to content-specific working memory storage.

BNST PKCδ neurons are activated by specific aversive conditions to promote anxiety-like behavior.

The bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST) is a critical mediator of stress responses and anxiety-like behaviors. Neurons expressing protein kinase C delta (BNSTPKCδ) are an abundant but understudied subpopulation implicated in inhibiting feeding, but which have conflicting reports about their role in anxiety-like behaviors. We have previously shown that expression of PKCδ is dynamically regulated by stress and that BNSTPKCδ cells are recruited during bouts of active stress coping. Here, we first show that in vivo activation of this population is mildly aversive. This aversion was insensitive to prior restraint stress exposure. Further investigation revealed that unlike other BNST subpopulations, BNSTPKCδ cells do not exhibit increased cfos expression following restraint stress. Ex vivo current clamp recordings also indicate they are resistant to firing. To elucidate their afferent control, we next used rabies tracing with whole-brain imaging and channelrhodopsin-assisted circuit mapping, finding that BNSTPKCδ cells receive abundant input from affective, arousal, and sensory regions including the basolateral amygdala (BLA) paraventricular thalamus (PVT) and central amygdala PKCδ-expressing cells (CeAPKCδ). Given these findings, we used in vivo optogenetics and fiber photometry to further examine BNSTPKCδ cells in the context of stress and anxiety-like behavior. We found that BNSTPKCδ cell activity is associated with increased anxiety-like behavior in the elevated plus maze, increases following footshock, and unlike other BNST subpopulations, does not desensitize to repeated stress exposure. Taken together, we propose a model in which BNSTPKCδ cells may serve as threat detectors, integrating exteroceptive and interoceptive information to inform stress coping behaviors.

Propofol disrupts alpha dynamics in functionally distinct thalamocortical networks during loss of consciousness

During propofol-induced general anesthesia, alpha rhythms measured using electroencephalography undergo a striking shift from posterior to anterior, termed anteriorization, where the ubiquitous waking alpha is lost and a frontal alpha emerges. The functional significance of alpha anteriorization and the precise brain regions contributing to the phenomenon are a mystery. While posterior alpha is thought to be generated by thalamocortical circuits connecting nuclei of the sensory thalamus with their cortical partners, the thalamic origins of the propofol-induced alpha remain poorly understood. Here, we used human intracranial recordings to identify regions in sensory cortices where propofol attenuates a coherent alpha network, distinct from those in the frontal cortex where it amplifies coherent alpha and beta activities. We then performed diffusion tractography between these identified regions and individual thalamic nuclei to show that the opposing dynamics of anteriorization occur within two distinct thalamocortical networks. We found that propofol disrupted a posterior alpha network structurally connected with nuclei in the sensory and sensory associational regions of the thalamus. At the same time, propofol induced a coherent alpha oscillation within prefrontal cortical areas that were connected with thalamic nuclei involved in cognition, such as the mediodorsal nucleus. The cortical and thalamic anatomy involved, as well as their known functional roles, suggests multiple means by which propofol dismantles sensory and cognitive processes to achieve loss of consciousness.

Functional gradients in prefrontal regions and somatomotor networks reflect the effect of music training experience on cognitive aging.

Studies showed that the top-down control of the prefrontal cortex (PFC) on sensory/motor cortices changes during cognitive aging. Although music training has demonstrated efficacy on cognitive aging, its brain mechanism is still far from clear. Current music intervention studies have paid insufficient attention to the relationship between PFC and sensory regions. Functional gradient provides a new perspective that allows researchers to understand network spatial relationships, which helps study the mechanism of music training that affects cognitive aging. In this work, we estimated the functional gradients in four groups, young musicians, young control, older musicians, and older control. We found that cognitive aging leads to gradient compression. Compared with young subjects, older subjects presented lower and higher principal gradient scores in the right dorsal and medial prefrontal and the bilateral somatomotor regions, respectively. Meanwhile, by comparing older control and musicians, we found a mitigating effect of music training on gradient compression. Furthermore, we revealed that the connectivity transitions between prefrontal and somatomotor regions at short functional distances are a potential mechanism for music to intervene in cognitive aging. This work contributes to understanding the neuroplasticity of music training on cognitive aging.

Dynamic causal modeling analysis reveals the modulation of motor cortex and integration in superior temporal gyrus during multisensory speech perception.

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11571-023-09945-z.

Wireless Peripheral Nerve Stimulation for The Upper Limb: A Case Report

Peripheral neuro-stimulation (PNS) has been proved to be effective for the treatment of neuropathic pain as well as other painful conditions. We discuss two approaches to PNS placement in the upper extremity. The first case describes a neuropathic syndrome after the traumatic amputation of the distal phalanx of the fifth digit secondary to a work accident with lack of responsiveness to a triple conservative therapy. An upper arm region approach for the PNS was chosen. The procedure had a favorable outcome; in fact, after one month the pain symptoms were absent (VAS 0) and the pharmacological therapy was suspended. The second case presented a patient affected by progressive CRPS type II in the sensory regions of the ulnar and median nerve in the hand, unresponsive to drug therapy. For this procedure, the PNS device was implanted in the forearm. Unfortunately, in this second case the migration of the catheter affected the effectiveness of the treatment. After examining the two cases in this paper, we changed our practice and suggest the implantation of PNS for radial, median and/or ulnar nerve stimulation in the upper arm region, which has significant advantages over the forearm region.

Severely Attenuated Visual Feedback Processing in Children on the Autism Spectrum.

Individuals on the autism spectrum often exhibit atypicality in their sensory perception, but the neural underpinnings of these perceptual differences remain incompletely understood. One proposed mechanism is an imbalance in higher-order feedback re-entrant inputs to early sensory cortices during sensory perception, leading to increased propensity to focus on local object features over global context. We explored this theory by measuring visual evoked potentials during contour integration as considerable work has revealed that these processes are largely driven by feedback inputs from higher-order ventral visual stream regions. We tested the hypothesis that autistic individuals would have attenuated evoked responses to illusory contours compared with neurotypical controls. Electrophysiology was acquired while 29 autistic and 31 neurotypical children (7-17 years old, inclusive of both males and females) passively viewed a random series of Kanizsa figure stimuli, each consisting of four inducers that were aligned either at random rotational angles or such that contour integration would form an illusory square. Autistic children demonstrated attenuated automatic contour integration over lateral occipital regions relative to neurotypical controls. The data are discussed in terms of the role of predictive feedback processes on perception of global stimulus features and the notion that weakened "priors" may play a role in the visual processing anomalies seen in autism.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Children on the autism spectrum differ from typically developing children in many aspects of their processing of sensory stimuli. One proposed mechanism for these differences is an imbalance in higher-order feedback to primary sensory regions, leading to an increased focus on local object features rather than global context. However, systematic investigation of these feedback mechanisms remains limited. Using EEG and a visual illusion paradigm that is highly dependent on intact feedback processing, we demonstrated significant disruptions to visual feedback processing in children with autism. This provides much needed experimental evidence that advances our understanding of the contribution of feedback processing to visual perception in autism spectrum disorder.

Cross-sensory interference assessment after exposure to noise shows different effects in the blue crab olfactory and sound sensing capabilities

Underwater noise pollution is an increasing threat to marine ecosystems. Marine animals use sound in communication and orientation processes. The introduction of anthropogenic noise in their habitat can interfere with sound production and reception as well as with the acquisition of vital information through other sensory systems. In the blue crab (Callinectes sapidus), the statocyst is responsible for acoustic perception, and it is housed at the base of its first pair of antennae (antennule). The sensilla of the distal part of these antennule hosts the olfactory system, which is key for foraging. Given the anatomical proximity of the two sensory regions, we evaluated the possible interference of sound exposure with the crab ability to find food, by using an aquatic maze, and looked at the potential impairment of the righting reflex as well as at ultrastructural damages in statocysts. Although a significant effect was observed when looking at the time used by the animal to recover its habitual position (“righting reflex”), which was associated to lesions in the statocyst sensory epithelia, the time required to find food did not increase after the exposure to sound. When the crabs were exposed to natural sounds (marine background noise and sounds of their predators: Micropogonias undulates and Sciaenops ocellatus) they did not show significant differences in foraging behaviour. Although we found no unequivocal evidence of a negative impact of sound on olfactory capabilities, the study showed a clear righting reflex impairment correlated with ultrastructural damages of the statocysts. We argue that crab populations that cannot easily avoid noise sources due to their specific coastal distributions may incur in significant direct fitness costs (e.g. impairment of complex reflexes). This integrated approach to sound effect assessment could be used as a model for other invertebrate species to effectively monitor noise impact in marine environments.

Ongoing movement controls sensory integration in the dorsolateral striatum

The dorsolateral striatum (DLS) receives excitatory inputs from both sensory and motor cortical regions. In the neocortex, sensory responses are affected by motor activity, however, it is not known whether such sensorimotor interactions occur in the striatum and how they are shaped by dopamine. To determine the impact of motor activity on striatal sensory processing, we performed in vivo whole-cell recordings in the DLS of awake mice during the presentation of tactile stimuli. Striatal medium spiny neurons (MSNs) were activated by both whisker stimulation and spontaneous whisking, however, their responses to whisker deflection during ongoing whisking were attenuated. Dopamine depletion reduced the representation of whisking in direct-pathway MSNs, but not in those of the indirect-pathway. Furthermore, dopamine depletion impaired the discrimination between ipsilateral and contralateral sensory stimulation in both direct and indirect pathway MSNs. Our results show that whisking affects sensory responses in DLS and that striatal representation of both processes is dopamine- and cell type-dependent.