title: State-dependent architecture of thalamic reticular subnetworks.
abstract: Behavioral state is known to influence interactions between thalamus and cortex, which are important for sensation, action, and cognition. The thalamic reticular nucleus (TRN) is hypothesized to regulate thalamo-cortical interactions, but the underlying functional architecture of this process and its state dependence are unknown. By combining the first TRN ensemble recording with psychophysics and connectivity-based optogenetic tagging, we found reticular circuits to be composed of distinct subnetworks. While activity of limbic-projecting TRN neurons positively correlates with arousal, sensory-projecting neurons participate in spindles and show elevated synchrony by slow waves during sleep. Sensory-projecting neurons are suppressed by attentional states, demonstrating that their gating of thalamo-cortical interactions is matched to behavioral state. Bidirectional manipulation of attentional performance was achieved through subnetwork-specific optogenetic stimulation. Together, our findings provide evidence for differential inhibition of thalamic nuclei across brain states, where the TRN separately controls external sensory and internal limbic processing facilitating normal cognitive function. PAPERFLICK:
authors.affiliation: Neuroscience Institute, New York University Langone Medical Center, New York, NY 10016, USA; Department of Neuroscience & Physiology, New York University Langone Medical Center, New York, NY 10016, USA; Department of Psychiatry, New York University Langone Medical Center, New York, NY 10016, USA; Picower Institute for Learning and Memory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA. Electronic address: michael.halassa@nyumc.org.
authors.forename: Michael M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Halassa
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, New York University Langone Medical Center, New York, NY 10016, USA.
authors.forename: Zhe
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Neuroscience Institute, New York University Langone Medical Center, New York, NY 10016, USA; Department of Neuroscience & Physiology, New York University Langone Medical Center, New York, NY 10016, USA; Department of Psychiatry, New York University Langone Medical Center, New York, NY 10016, USA; Picower Institute for Learning and Memory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
authors.forename: Ralf D
authors.initials: RD
authors.lastname: Wimmer
authors.affiliation: Picower Institute for Learning and Memory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
authors.forename: Philip M
authors.initials: PM
authors.lastname: Brunetti
authors.affiliation: Department of Cell Biology, Duke University, Durham, NC 27710, USA.
authors.forename: Shengli
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Sciences and Program in Neuroscience, Boston University, Boston, MA 02215, USA.
authors.forename: Basilis
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Zikopoulos
authors.affiliation: Department of Cell Biology, Duke University, Durham, NC 27710, USA.
authors.forename: Fan
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Anesthesia, Critical Care and Pain Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA 02114, USA; Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA; Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA; Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, Institute of Medical Engineering and Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
authors.forename: Emery N
authors.initials: EN
authors.lastname: Brown
authors.affiliation: Picower Institute for Learning and Memory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
authors.forename: Matthew A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Wilson
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001288:Attention; D001522:Behavior, Animal; D003071:Cognition; D008032:Limbic System / Q000502:physiology; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D013787:Thalamic Nuclei / Q000502:physiology*; D014796:Visual Perception