Optoelectronic monitoring of individual whisker movements in rats

Bermejo, Roberto; Houben, Dirk; Zeigler, H. Philip

doi:10.1016/s0165-0270(98)00050-8

Cited by 95 publications

(97 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…Following the initial description of whisker movements by Welker [8] in the last 20 years, dramatic progress was made in the quantification and analysis of these movements [9,11,14]. This ongoing progress is driven, at least in part, by technical advances in the quantification of whisker movements [11,[22][23][24]. The basic anatomy [25,26] and physiology [12,13,26] of the whisker musculature have been worked out, although detailed quantitative information is missing.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In whisking species, vibrissa sweeps follow in close succession with typical frequencies of around 5-15 Hz in rats ( Fig. 1 top row [8,11]) and [15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25] Hz in mice [10,12]. It is also becoming clear that whisking species are capable of multiple modes and frequencies of whisking.…”

Section: Whisker Movements and Whisking Behaviormentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Optoelectronic monitoring An array of light-sensitive elements was used by Zeigler and colleagues for a highspeed online monitoring of whisker position [23]. This method allows single-whisker tracking.…”

Section: Quantifying Whisker Movementsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Cellular mechanisms of motor control in the vibrissal system

Brecht

Grinevich

Jin

et al. 2006

Pflugers Arch - Eur J Physiol

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In this article we discuss the experimental advantages that the vibrissal motor system offers for analysis of motor control and the specializations of this system related to the unique characteristics of whisker movements. Whisker movements are often rhythmic, fast, and bilateral. Movements of individual whiskers have simple characteristics, whereas, movements of the entire vibrissae array are complex and sophisticated. In the last few years, powerful methods for high precision tracking of whisker movements have become available. The whisker musculature is arranged to permit forward movements of individual whiskers and consists-depending on the species -mainly or exclusively of fast contracting, fast fatigable muscle fibers. Whisker motor neurons are located in the lateral facial nucleus and their cellular properties might contribute to the rhythmicity of whisking. Numerous structures provide input to the lateral facial nucleus, the most mysterious and important one being the putative central pattern generator (CPG). Although recent studies identified candidate structures for the CPG, the precise identity and the functional organization of this structure remains uncertain. The vibrissa motor cortex (VMC) is the largest motor representation in the rodent brain, and recent work has clarified its localization, subdivisions, cytoarchitectonics, and connectivity. Single-cell stimulation experiments in VMC allow determining the cellular basis of cortical motor control with unprecedented precision. The functional significance of whisker movements remains to be determined.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Whisker Movements and Whisking Behaviormentioning

confidence: 99%

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Cellular mechanisms of motor control in the vibrissal system

Brecht

Grinevich

Jin

et al. 2006

Pflugers Arch - Eur J Physiol

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“…The values used here were chosen on the basis of measurements from naturally whisking rats Bermejo et al, 1998) All stimuli were 100 msec ramp and hold deflections delivered at Յ0.5 Hz to prevent steady-state adaptation of whisker-evoked responses (Moore et al, 1999). Because of the smoothing of the ramps driving the piezos, the velocity of the deflection was not constant.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Synaptic Responses to Whisker Deflections in Rat Barrel Cortex as a Function of Cortical Layer and Stimulus Intensity

Wilent¹,

Contreras²

2004

J. Neurosci.

127

115

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To study the synaptic and spike responses of barrel cortex neurons as a function of cortical layer and stimulus intensity, we recorded intracellularly in vivo from barbiturate anesthetized rats while increasing the velocity-acceleration of the whisker deflection. Granular (Gr; layer 4) cells had the EPSP with the shortest peak and onset latency, whereas supragranular (SGr; layers 2-3) cells had the EPSP with longest duration and slowest rate of rise. Infragranular (Igr; layers 5-6) cells had intermediate values, and thus each layer was unique. The spike response peak of Gr cells was followed by IGr and then by SGr cells. In all cells, depolarization reduced the duration and amplitude of the response, but only in Gr cells did it reveal an early IPSP that cut short the EPSP. This early IPSP was associated with a large decrease in input resistance and an apparent reversal potential below spike threshold; consequently, synaptic integration in Gr cells was limited to the initial 5-7 msec of the response. In contrast, in SGr and IGr cells, results suggest an overlap in time of the EPSP and IPSP, with a small drop in input resistance and an apparent reversal potential above spike threshold, facilitating input integration for up to 20 msec. Decreasing stimulus intensity (velocity-acceleration) reduced the amplitude and increased the peak latency of the response without altering its synaptic composition. We propose that layer 4 circuits are better suited to perform coincidence detection, whereas supra and infragranular circuits are better designed for input integration.

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“…A whisker-attached paradigm does not allow for any of the variability reported in whisker movements that occur during tactile discrimination tasks. For example, rats have been shown to whisk at different velocities when discriminating different textures and whiskers have been shown to bend, cross over each other, stick to and slip on the stimulus, as well as resonate Bermejo et al 1998;Hartmann 2001;Harvey et al 2001;Hartmann et al 2003;Andermann et al 2004;Moore 2004). …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Whisker primary afferents encode temporal frequency of moving gratings

Jones

Kwegyir-Afful

Keller

2006

Somatosensory & Motor Research

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To investigate the encoding of behaviorally relevant stimuli in the rodent whisker-somatosensory system, we recorded responses to moving gratings from trigeminal ganglion neurons. This allowed us to quantify how spike patterns in these neurons encode behaviorally distinguishable tactile stimuli presented with the variability inherent in a freely moving whisker paradigm. Our stimulus set consisted of three grating plates with raised bars of the same thickness (275 μm) having different spatial periods (1.0, 1.1, and 1.5 mm) swept rostro-caudally past the whiskers at velocities ranging from 50 to 330 mm/s. This resulted in 20 presentations each of nine different temporal frequencies (ranging from 50 to 220 Hz) for every grating plate. We found that despite the additional degrees of freedom introduced in this freely moving whisker paradigm, firing patterns from the majority (83%) of trigeminal ganglion neurons were statistically distinguishable, and corresponded to the temporal frequency of stimulation. The range of velocities (100-160 mm/s) that resulted in the most accurate and least variable representation of stimulus temporal frequency by trigeminal firing patterns closely corresponds to the whisking velocities employed by trained rats performing similar discrimination tasks. This suggests that, during naturally occurring whisking, individual primary afferents faithfully encode temporal frequency evoked by whisker contacts.

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Optoelectronic monitoring of individual whisker movements in rats

Cited by 95 publications

References 11 publications

Cellular mechanisms of motor control in the vibrissal system

Cellular mechanisms of motor control in the vibrissal system

Synaptic Responses to Whisker Deflections in Rat Barrel Cortex as a Function of Cortical Layer and Stimulus Intensity

Whisker primary afferents encode temporal frequency of moving gratings

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