Neuronal activity in rat barrel cortex underlying texture discrimination.

Rats and mice palpate objects with their whiskers to generate tactile sensations. This form of active sensing endows the animals with the capacity for fast and accurate texture discrimination. The present work is aimed at understanding the nature of the underlying cortical signals. We recorded neuro...

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Auteurs principaux:	Moritz von Heimendahl, Pavel M Itskov, Ehsan Arabzadeh, Mathew E Diamond
Format:	article
Langue:	EN
Publié:	Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2007
Sujets:	Biology (General) QH301-705.5
Accès en ligne:	https://doaj.org/article/f76479fcee93447ab51f98ee537a0ac6
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id	oai:doaj.org-article:f76479fcee93447ab51f98ee537a0ac6
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:f76479fcee93447ab51f98ee537a0ac62021-12-02T19:54:31ZNeuronal activity in rat barrel cortex underlying texture discrimination.1544-91731545-788510.1371/journal.pbio.0050305https://doaj.org/article/f76479fcee93447ab51f98ee537a0ac62007-11-01T00:00:00Zhttps://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.0050305https://doaj.org/toc/1544-9173https://doaj.org/toc/1545-7885Rats and mice palpate objects with their whiskers to generate tactile sensations. This form of active sensing endows the animals with the capacity for fast and accurate texture discrimination. The present work is aimed at understanding the nature of the underlying cortical signals. We recorded neuronal activity from barrel cortex while rats used their whiskers to discriminate between rough and smooth textures. On whisker contact with either texture, firing rate increased by a factor of two to ten. Average firing rate was significantly higher for rough than for smooth textures, and we therefore propose firing rate as the fundamental coding mechanism. The rat, however, cannot take an average across trials, but must make an immediate decision using the signals generated on each trial. To estimate single-trial signals, we calculated the mutual information between stimulus and firing rate in the time window leading to the rat's observed choice. Activity during the last 75 ms before choice transmitted the most informative signal; in this window, neuronal clusters carried, on average, 0.03 bits of information about the stimulus on trials in which the rat's behavioral response was correct. To understand how cortical activity guides behavior, we examined responses in incorrect trials and found that, in contrast to correct trials, neuronal firing rate was higher for smooth than for rough textures. Analysis of high-speed films suggested that the inappropriate signal on incorrect trials was due, at least in part, to nonoptimal whisker contact. In conclusion, these data suggest that barrel cortex firing rate on each trial leads directly to the animal's judgment of texture.Moritz von HeimendahlPavel M ItskovEhsan ArabzadehMathew E DiamondPublic Library of Science (PLoS)articleBiology (General)QH301-705.5ENPLoS Biology, Vol 5, Iss 11, p e305 (2007)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Biology (General) QH301-705.5
spellingShingle	Biology (General) QH301-705.5 Moritz von Heimendahl Pavel M Itskov Ehsan Arabzadeh Mathew E Diamond Neuronal activity in rat barrel cortex underlying texture discrimination.
description	Rats and mice palpate objects with their whiskers to generate tactile sensations. This form of active sensing endows the animals with the capacity for fast and accurate texture discrimination. The present work is aimed at understanding the nature of the underlying cortical signals. We recorded neuronal activity from barrel cortex while rats used their whiskers to discriminate between rough and smooth textures. On whisker contact with either texture, firing rate increased by a factor of two to ten. Average firing rate was significantly higher for rough than for smooth textures, and we therefore propose firing rate as the fundamental coding mechanism. The rat, however, cannot take an average across trials, but must make an immediate decision using the signals generated on each trial. To estimate single-trial signals, we calculated the mutual information between stimulus and firing rate in the time window leading to the rat's observed choice. Activity during the last 75 ms before choice transmitted the most informative signal; in this window, neuronal clusters carried, on average, 0.03 bits of information about the stimulus on trials in which the rat's behavioral response was correct. To understand how cortical activity guides behavior, we examined responses in incorrect trials and found that, in contrast to correct trials, neuronal firing rate was higher for smooth than for rough textures. Analysis of high-speed films suggested that the inappropriate signal on incorrect trials was due, at least in part, to nonoptimal whisker contact. In conclusion, these data suggest that barrel cortex firing rate on each trial leads directly to the animal's judgment of texture.
format	article
author	Moritz von Heimendahl Pavel M Itskov Ehsan Arabzadeh Mathew E Diamond
author_facet	Moritz von Heimendahl Pavel M Itskov Ehsan Arabzadeh Mathew E Diamond
author_sort	Moritz von Heimendahl
title	Neuronal activity in rat barrel cortex underlying texture discrimination.
title_short	Neuronal activity in rat barrel cortex underlying texture discrimination.
title_full	Neuronal activity in rat barrel cortex underlying texture discrimination.
title_fullStr	Neuronal activity in rat barrel cortex underlying texture discrimination.
title_full_unstemmed	Neuronal activity in rat barrel cortex underlying texture discrimination.
title_sort	neuronal activity in rat barrel cortex underlying texture discrimination.
publisher	Public Library of Science (PLoS)
publishDate	2007
url	https://doaj.org/article/f76479fcee93447ab51f98ee537a0ac6
work_keys_str_mv	AT moritzvonheimendahl neuronalactivityinratbarrelcortexunderlyingtexturediscrimination AT pavelmitskov neuronalactivityinratbarrelcortexunderlyingtexturediscrimination AT ehsanarabzadeh neuronalactivityinratbarrelcortexunderlyingtexturediscrimination AT mathewediamond neuronalactivityinratbarrelcortexunderlyingtexturediscrimination
_version_	1718375939703832576

Neuronal activity in rat barrel cortex underlying texture discrimination.

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