Cellular and synaptic analysis of rodent social facial touch
Final Report Abstract
The exquisite topographic representation of whisker in barrel cortex and the fact that whiskers can be easily accessed for manipulation or stimulation has greatly contributed to the success of this model system. The quantitatively controlled tactile stimulation of single whiskers in anesthetized animals provided a high-resolution picture of physiology of the whisker system that is unmatched in any other mammalian sensory system. Nevertheless we are still ignorant about how the whisker-to-barrel system processes complex biologically meaningful stimuli. This theme – the processing of complex biologically meaningful stimuli – will be pursued in our subproject. Specifically we investigated the neural representation of social facial touch in the rodent barrel cortex. This project consisted of four work packages and was build on our previous work on social facial touch and the development for recording techniques for awake behaving animals. In the work packages 1 we analyzed neural responses to passive social touch (being touched) in anesthetized animals. In the work package 2 we established and validated a head-fixed preparation for analyzing intracellular responses in barrel cortex during social touch. In the WP3 we applied the techniques established in WP2 to characterize the neural representation of social facial touch in the rat barrel cortex. In the WP4 we wanted to extend the work in head-fixed animals to freely interacting / moving animals. Our project could elucidate the cellular basis of social touch and for the first time provided insight into the processing of complex stimuli in the barrel cortex.
Publications
- (2013) Barrel cortex function. Prog. Neurobiol. 103: 3-27
Feldmeyer, D., Brecht, M., Helmchen, F., Petersen, C.C., Poulet, J.F., Staiger, J.F., Luhmann, H.J., Schwarz, C.
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pneurobio.2012.11.002) - (2015) Barrel cortex membrane potential dynamics in social touch. Neuron 85:718-725
Lenschow C, Brecht M
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2014.12.059)
