Higher-Order Thalamic Relays Burst More Than First-Order Relays

There is a strong correlation between the behavior of an animal and the firing mode (burst or tonic) of thalamic relay neurons. Certain differences between first- and higher-order thalamic relays (which relay peripheral information to the cortex versus information from one cortical area to another,...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS 2005-08, Vol.102 (34), p.12236-12241
Main Authors: Ramcharan, E J, Gnadt, J W, Sherman, S M
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Action potentials
Animal behavior
Animal cognition
Animals
Behavior, Animal - physiology
Biological Sciences
Brain Mapping
Cell nucleus
Lateral geniculate bodies
Macaca
Macaca mulatta
Medial geniculate bodies
Mediodorsal thalamic nucleus
Monkeys & apes
Neural Pathways - physiology
Neurons
Neurons - physiology
Neuroscience
Photic Stimulation
Pulvinar
Thalamic nuclei
Thalamic Nuclei - physiology
Vision, Ocular - physiology
Wakefulness
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Summary:There is a strong correlation between the behavior of an animal and the firing mode (burst or tonic) of thalamic relay neurons. Certain differences between first- and higher-order thalamic relays (which relay peripheral information to the cortex versus information from one cortical area to another, respectively) suggest that more bursting might occur in the higher-order relays. Accordingly, we recorded bursting behavior in single cells from awake, behaving rhesus monkeys in first-order (the lateral geniculate nucleus, the ventral posterior nucleus, and the ventral portion of the medial geniculate nucleus) and higher-order (pulvinar and the medial dorsal nucleus) thalamic relays. We found that the extent of bursting was dramatically greater in the higher-order than in the first-order relays, and this increased bursting correlated with lower spontaneous activity in the higher-order relays. If bursting effectively signals the introduction of new information to a cortical area, as suggested, this increased bursting may be more important in corticocortical transmission than in transmission of primary information to cortex.
ISSN:0027-8424
1091-6490
DOI:10.1073/pnas.0502843102