title: Control of spatiotemporal coherence of a thalamic oscillation by corticothalamic feedback.
abstract: The mammalian thalamus is the gateway to the cortex for most sensory modalities. Nearly all thalamic nuclei also receive massive feedback projections from the cortical region to which they project. In this study, the spatiotemporal properties of synchronized thalamic spindle oscillations (7 to 14 hertz) were investigated in barbiturate-anesthetized cats, before and after removal of the cortex. After complete ipsilateral decortication, the long-range synchronization of thalamic spindles in the intact cortex hemisphere changed into disorganized patterns with low spatiotemporal coherence. Local thalamic synchrony was still present, as demonstrated by dual intracellular recordings from nearby neurons. In the cortex, synchrony was insensitive to the disruption of horizontal intracortical connections. These results indicate that the global coherence of thalamic oscillations is determined by corticothalamic projections.
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire de Neurophysiologie, Faculté de Médecine, Université Laval, Quebec G1K 7P4, Canada.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Contreras
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Destexhe
authors.forename: T J
authors.initials: TJ
authors.lastname: Sejnowski
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Steriade
mesh_terms: D000758:Anesthesia; D000818:Animals; D002415:Cats; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000502:physiology* / Q000601:surgery; D003344:Cortical Synchronization; D004594:Electrophysiology; D005246:Feedback; D009434:Neural Pathways; D012890:Sleep / Q000502:physiology; D009435:Synaptic Transmission; D013788:Thalamus / Q000502:physiology*