title: Embedding a Panoramic Representation of Infrared Light in the Adult Rat Somatosensory Cortex through a Sensory Neuroprosthesis.
abstract: Can the adult brain assimilate a novel, topographically organized, sensory modality into its perceptual repertoire? To test this, we implemented a microstimulation-based neuroprosthesis that rats used to discriminate among infrared (IR) light sources. This system continuously relayed information from four IR sensors that were distributed to provide a panoramic view of IR sources, into primary somatosensory cortex (S1). Rats learned to discriminate the location of IR sources in <4 d. Animals in which IR information was delivered in spatial register with whisker topography learned the task more quickly. Further, in animals that had learned to use the prosthesis, altering the topographic mapping from IR sensor to stimulating electrode had immediate deleterious effects on discrimination performance. Multielectrode recordings revealed that S1 neurons had multimodal (tactile/IR) receptive fields, with clear preferences for those stimuli most likely to be delivered during the task. Neuronal populations predicted, with high accuracy, which stimulation pattern was present in small (75 ms) time windows. Surprisingly, when identical microstimulation patterns were delivered during an unrelated task, cortical activity in S1 was strongly suppressed. Overall, these results show that the adult mammalian neocortex can readily absorb completely new information sources into its representational repertoire, and use this information in the production of adaptive behaviors.
authors.affiliation: Departments of Neurobiology, Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience, Humboldt University of Berlin, 10115 Berlin, Germany, and.
authors.forename: Konstantin
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9714-8607
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Hartmann
authors.affiliation: Departments of Neurobiology.
authors.forename: Eric E
authors.initials: EE
authors.lastname: Thomson
authors.affiliation: Departments of Neurobiology.
authors.forename: Ivan
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Zea
authors.affiliation: Departments of Neurobiology.
authors.forename: Richy
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9796-6116
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Yun
authors.affiliation: Departments of Neurobiology.
authors.forename: Peter
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9662-6125
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Mullen
authors.affiliation: Departments of Neurobiology.
authors.forename: Jay
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9651-7025
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Canarick
authors.affiliation: Georgia Regents University-Medical College of Georgia, Augusta, Georgia 30912.
authors.forename: Albert
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2848-2673
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Huh
authors.affiliation: Departments of Neurobiology, Biomedical Engineering, and Psychology and Neuroscience, and Center for Neuroengineering, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina 27710, Edmond and Lily Safra International Institute of Neuroscience of Natal (ELS-IINN), 59066-060, Natal, Brazil, nicoleli@neuro.duke.edu.
authors.forename: Miguel A L
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Nicolelis
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004193:Discrimination Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D004558:Electric Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D004567:Electrodes, Implanted; D005260:Female; D007259:Infrared Rays; D058117:Neural Prostheses; D009473:Neuronal Plasticity / Q000502:physiology; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods*; D051381:Rats; D020318:Rats, Long-Evans; D013003:Somatosensory Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D014110:Touch / Q000502:physiology; D014738:Vibrissae / Q000502:physiology
keywords: barrel cortex; rat; sensory prosthetic; whisker system