title: Short Time-Scale Sensory Coding in S1 during Discrimination of Whisker Vibrotactile Sequences.
abstract: Rodent whisker input consists of dense microvibration sequences that are often temporally integrated for perceptual discrimination. Whether primary somatosensory cortex (S1) participates in temporal integration is unknown. We trained rats to discriminate whisker impulse sequences that varied in single-impulse kinematics (5-20-ms time scale) and mean speed (150-ms time scale). Rats appeared to use the integrated feature, mean speed, to guide discrimination in this task, consistent with similar prior studies. Despite this, 52% of S1 units, including 73% of units in L4 and L2/3, encoded sequences at fast time scales (≤20 ms, mostly 5-10 ms), accurately reflecting single impulse kinematics. 17% of units, mostly in L5, showed weaker impulse responses and a slow firing rate increase during sequences. However, these units did not effectively integrate whisker impulses, but instead combined weak impulse responses with a distinct, slow signal correlated to behavioral choice. A neural decoder could identify sequences from fast unit spike trains and behavioral choice from slow units. Thus, S1 encoded fast time scale whisker input without substantial temporal integration across whisker impulses.
authors: Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, and Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, California, United States of America.
authors: Leah M
authors: LM
authors: McGuire
authors: Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, and Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, California, United States of America.
authors: Gregory
authors: G
authors: Telian
authors: Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, and Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, California, United States of America.
authors: Keven J
authors: KJ
authors: Laboy-Juárez
authors: Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, and Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, California, United States of America.
authors: Toshio
authors: T
authors: Miyashita
authors: Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, and Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, California, United States of America.
authors: Daniel J
authors: DJ
authors: Lee
authors: Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, and Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, California, United States of America.
authors: Katherine A
authors: KA
authors: Smith
authors: Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, and Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, California, United States of America.
authors: Daniel E
authors: DE
authors: Feldman
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004192:Discrimination, Psychological / Q000502:physiology*; D005073:Evoked Potentials, Somatosensory / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D009474:Neurons / Q000502:physiology; D010812:Physical Stimulation; D020318:Rats, Long-Evans; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology*; D013003:Somatosensory Cortex / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology*; D055698:Touch Perception / Q000502:physiology; D014732:Vibration; D014738:Vibrissae / Q000294:innervation / Q000502:physiology*