title: Representation of egomotion in rat's trident and E-row whisker cortices.
abstract: The whisker trident, a three-whisker array on the rat's chin, has been implicated in egomotion sensing and might function as a tactile speedometer. Here we study the cortical representation of trident whiskers and E-row whiskers in barrel cortex. Neurons identified in trident cortex of anesthetized animals showed sustained velocity-sensitive responses to ground motion. In freely moving animals, about two-thirds of the units in the trident and E-row whisker cortices were tuned to locomotion speed, a larger fraction of speed-tuned cells than in the somatosensory dysgranular zone. Similarly, more units were tuned to acceleration and showed sensitivity to turning in trident and E-row whisker cortices than in the dysgranular zone. Microstimulation in locomoting animals evoked small but significant speed changes, and such changes were larger in the trident and E-row whisker representations than in the dysgranular zone. Thus, activity in trident and E-row cortices represents egomotion information and influences locomotion behavior.
authors.affiliation: Department of Systems Neurobiology and Neural Computation, Humboldt Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany.|Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience, Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: Edith
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Chorev
authors.affiliation: Department of Systems Neurobiology and Neural Computation, Humboldt Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany.|Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience, Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: Patricia
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Preston-Ferrer
authors.affiliation: Department of Systems Neurobiology and Neural Computation, Humboldt Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany.|Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience, Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Brecht
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004558:Electric Stimulation; D008124:Locomotion / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D013003:Somatosensory Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D014738:Vibrissae / Q000502:physiology*