Co-coding of head and whisker movements by both VPM and POm thalamic neurons

Tess Baker Oram; Alon Tenzer; Inbar Saraf-Sinik; Ofer Yizhar; Ehud Ahissar

doi:10.1038/s41467-024-50039-z

Co-coding of head and whisker movements by both VPM and POm thalamic neurons

Tess Baker Oram, Alon Tenzer, Inbar Saraf-Sinik, Ofer Yizhar, Ehud Ahissar^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Department of Brain Sciences

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

Rodents continuously move their heads and whiskers in a coordinated manner while perceiving objects through whisker-touch. Studies in head-fixed rodents showed that the ventroposterior medial (VPM) and posterior medial (POm) thalamic nuclei code for whisker kinematics, with POm involvement reduced in awake animals. To examine VPM and POm involvement in coding head and whisker kinematics in awake, head-free conditions, we recorded thalamic neuronal activity and tracked head and whisker movements in male mice exploring an open arena. Using optogenetic tagging, we found that in freely moving mice, both nuclei equally coded whisker kinematics and robustly coded head kinematics. The fraction of neurons coding head kinematics increased after whisker trimming, ruling out whisker-mediated coding. Optogenetic activation of thalamic neurons evoked overt kinematic changes and increased the fraction of neurons leading changes in head kinematics. Our data suggest that VPM and POm integrate head and whisker information and can influence head kinematics during tactile perception.

Original language	English
Article number	5883
Journal	Nature Communications
Volume	15
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-50039-z
Publication status	Published - 13 Jul 2024

Bibliographical note

We thank Daniel O’Connor and Alexander Groh for commenting on earlier versions of the manuscript and Arseny Finkelstein and Nachum Ulanovsky for advising on analyzing head kinematics. This research was supported by the United States-Israel Binational Science Foundation (BSF, grant No. 2017216), the Israel Science Foundation (grant No. 2237/20), the Weizmann-UK collaboration grant, and the Yotam project and the Minerva Foundation funded by the Federal German Ministry for Education and Research. E.A. holds the Helen Diller Family Professorial Chair of Neurobiology

Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2024.

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

General Chemistry
General Biochemistry,Genetics and Molecular Biology
General Physics and Astronomy

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abstract = "Rodents continuously move their heads and whiskers in a coordinated manner while perceiving objects through whisker-touch. Studies in head-fixed rodents showed that the ventroposterior medial (VPM) and posterior medial (POm) thalamic nuclei code for whisker kinematics, with POm involvement reduced in awake animals. To examine VPM and POm involvement in coding head and whisker kinematics in awake, head-free conditions, we recorded thalamic neuronal activity and tracked head and whisker movements in male mice exploring an open arena. Using optogenetic tagging, we found that in freely moving mice, both nuclei equally coded whisker kinematics and robustly coded head kinematics. The fraction of neurons coding head kinematics increased after whisker trimming, ruling out whisker-mediated coding. Optogenetic activation of thalamic neurons evoked overt kinematic changes and increased the fraction of neurons leading changes in head kinematics. Our data suggest that VPM and POm integrate head and whisker information and can influence head kinematics during tactile perception.",

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Co-coding of head and whisker movements by both VPM and POm thalamic neurons

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