The studies reported here demonstrate that the projection representation of the whiskers in the somatosensory cortex in rats is the area at which afferent streams arriving via the lemniscal and paralemniscal projections interact. The responses of neurons in layers IV, Va, and Vb to mechanical stimulation of single whiskers were studied. Neurons in layers IV and Vb were found to show more frequent phasic responses (typical of the lemniscal system), while those in layer Va produced predominantly tonic responses (typical of the paralemniscal system). These characteristics of adaptive-plastic rearrangements of cortical neuron activity in response to constant stimuli may result from intracortical cooperative interactions between the lemniscal and paralemniscal projection systems, which, overall, produces a precise qualitative assessment of the perceived stimulus in its specific context.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
G. Somien, Encoding of Sensory Information in the Mammalian Nervous System [Russian translation], E. N. Sokolov (ed.), Mir, Moscow (1975).
I. A. Shevelev, Visual Cortex Neurons. Receptive Field Adaptiveness and Dynamics [in Russian], Nauka, Moscow (1984).
E. Ahissar, R. Sosnik, and S. Haidarliu, “Transformation from temporal to rate coding in a somatosensory thalamocortical pathway,” Nature, 406, No. 6793, 302–306 (2000).
M. Armstrong-Jones, K. Fox, and A. Das-Gupta, “Flow of excitation within rat barrel cortex on striking a single vibrissa,” J. Neurophysiol., 68, No. 4, 1345–1358 (1992).
I. Bureau, F. von Saint Paul, and K. Svoboda, “Interdigitated paralemniscal and lemniscal pathways in the mouse barrel cortex,” PLoS Biol., 4, No. 12, e382, DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.0040382 (2006).
M. E. Diamond, “Neurobiology. Parallel sensing,” Nature, 406, No. 6793, 245–247 (2000).
F. F. Ebner and M. A. Armstrong-Jones, “Intracortical processes regulating the integration of sensory information,” Prog. Brain Res., 86, 129–141 (1990).
D. H. Hubel, “Evolution of ideas on the primary visual cortex, 1955–1978: A biased historical account,” Biosci. Reports, 2, No. 7, 435–469 (1982) (on-line access at http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1981/hubel-lecture.pdf).
M. Ito, “Some uantitative aspects of vibrissa-driven neuronal responses in rat neocortex,” J. Neurophysiol., 46, No. 4, 705–715 (1981).
M. Ito, “Processing of vibrissa sensory information within the rat neocortex,” J. Neurophysiol., 54, No. 3, 479–490 (1985).
Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals, National Research Council, Washington D.C., National Academy Press (1996), (http://www.nap.edu/readingroom/enter2.cgi?0309053773.html).
K. A. Oralek, K. F. Jensen, and H. P. Killackey, “Evidence for two complementary patterns of thalamic input to the rat somatosensory cortex,” Brain Res., 463, 346–351 (1988).
H. T. Kyriazi, G. E. Carvell, and D. J. Simons, “OFF response transformations in the whisker/barrel system,” J. Neurophysiol., 72, No. 1, 392–401 (1994).
S. M. Lu and R. C. Lin, “Thalamic afferents of the rat barrel cortex: a light and electron-microscopic study using Phaseolus vulgaris leucoagglutinin as an anterograde tracer,” Somatosens. Mot. Res., 10, 1016 (1993).
B. S. Minnery, R. M. Bruno, and D. J. Simons, “Response transformation and receptive-field synthesis in the lemniscal trigeminothalamic circuit,” J. Neurophysiol., 90, No. 3, 1556–1570 (2003).
T. Pierret, P. Vavallee, and M. Deschesnes, “Parallel streams for the relay of vibrissal information through thalamic barreloids,” J. Neurosci., 20, 7455–7462 (2000).
D. J. Simons, “Temporal and spatial integration in the rat SI vibrissa cortex,” J. Neurophysiol., 54, 615–635 (1985).
D. J. Simons, G. E. Carvell, A. E. Hershey, and D. P. Bryant, “Responses of barrel cortex neurons in awake rats and effects of urethane anesthesia,” Exp. Brain Res., 91, No. 2, 259–272 (1992).
C. Yu, D. Derdikman, S. Haidarliu, and E. Ahisssar, “Parallel thalamic pathways for whisking and touch signals in the rat,” PLos Biol., 4, No. 5, e124 (2006). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.0040124.
E. Zucker and W. I. Welker, “Coding of somatic sensory input by vibrissae neurons in the rat’s trigeminal ganglion,” Brain Res., 12, 138–156 (1969).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Translated from Zhurnal Vysshei Nervnoi Deyatel’nosti imeni I. P. Pavlova, Vol. 59, No. 1, pp. 98–106, January–February, 2009.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Sitnikova, E.Y., Raevskii, V.V. The Lemniscal and Paralemniscal Pathways of the Trigeminal System in Rodents Are Integrated at the Level of the Somatosensory Cortex. Neurosci Behav Physi 40, 325–331 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11055-010-9259-7
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11055-010-9259-7