title: Coupled variability in primary sensory areas and the hippocampus during spontaneous activity.
abstract: The cerebral cortex is an anatomically divided and functionally specialized structure. It includes distinct areas, which work on different states over time. The structural features of spiking activity in sensory cortices have been characterized during spontaneous and evoked activity. However, the coordination among cortical and sub-cortical neurons during spontaneous activity across different states remains poorly characterized. We addressed this issue by studying the temporal coupling of spiking variability recorded from primary sensory cortices and hippocampus of anesthetized or freely behaving rats. During spontaneous activity, spiking variability was highly correlated across primary cortical sensory areas at both small and large spatial scales, whereas the cortico-hippocampal correlation was modest. This general pattern of spiking variability was observed under urethane anesthesia, as well as during waking, slow-wave sleep and rapid-eye-movement sleep, and was unchanged by novel stimulation. These results support the notion that primary sensory areas are strongly coupled during spontaneous activity.
authors.affiliation: Life and Health Sciences Research Institute (ICVS), School of Medicine, University of Minho, Braga, 4710-057, Portugal.|ICVS/3B's - PT Government Associate Laboratory, Braga/Guimarães, Portugal.
authors.forename: Nivaldo A P
authors.initials: NA
authors.lastname: de Vasconcelos
authors.affiliation: Life and Health Sciences Research Institute (ICVS), School of Medicine, University of Minho, Braga, 4710-057, Portugal.|ICVS/3B's - PT Government Associate Laboratory, Braga/Guimarães, Portugal.
authors.forename: Carina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Soares-Cunha
authors.affiliation: Life and Health Sciences Research Institute (ICVS), School of Medicine, University of Minho, Braga, 4710-057, Portugal.|ICVS/3B's - PT Government Associate Laboratory, Braga/Guimarães, Portugal.
authors.forename: Ana João
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Rodrigues
authors.affiliation: Brain Institute, Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN), Natal, RN,59056-450, Brazil.
authors.forename: Sidarta
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ribeiro
authors.affiliation: Life and Health Sciences Research Institute (ICVS), School of Medicine, University of Minho, Braga, 4710-057, Portugal.|ICVS/3B's - PT Government Associate Laboratory, Braga/Guimarães, Portugal.
authors.forename: Nuno
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Sousa
mesh_terms: D000758:Anesthesia; D000818:Animals; D005106:Exploratory Behavior; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D011984:Sensory Receptor Cells / Q000502:physiology*; D013997:Time Factors