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Ipsilateral stimulus encoding in primary and secondary somatosensory cortex of awake mice

View ORCID ProfileAurélie Pala, View ORCID ProfileGarrett B. Stanley
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.07.16.452704
Aurélie Pala
1Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University, Atlanta, GA, 30332, USA.
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  • For correspondence: aurelie.pala@gmail.com
Garrett B. Stanley
1Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University, Atlanta, GA, 30332, USA.
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Abstract

Lateralization is a hallmark of somatosensory processing in the mammalian brain. However, in addition to their contralateral representation, unilateral tactile stimuli also modulate neuronal activity in somatosensory cortices of the ipsilateral hemisphere. The cellular organization and functional role of these ipsilateral stimulus responses in awake somatosensory cortices, especially regarding stimulus coding, are unknown. Here, we targeted silicon probe recordings to the vibrissa region of primary (S1) and secondary (S2) somatosensory cortex of awake head-fixed male and female mice while delivering ipsilateral and contralateral whisker stimuli. Ipsilateral stimuli drove larger and more reliable responses in S2 than in S1, and activated a larger fraction of stimulus-responsive neurons. Ipsilateral stimulus-responsive neurons were rare in layer 4 of S1, but were located in equal proportion across all layers in S2. Linear classifier analyses further revealed that decoding of the ipsilateral stimulus was more accurate in S2 than S1, while S1 decoded contralateral stimuli most accurately. These results reveal substantial encoding of ipsilateral stimuli in S1 and especially S2, consistent with the hypothesis that higher cortical areas may integrate tactile inputs across larger portions of space, spanning both sides of the body.

Significance Statement Tactile information obtained by one side of the body is represented in the activity of neurons of the opposite brain hemisphere. However unilateral tactile stimulation also modulates neuronal activity in the other, or ipsilateral, brain hemisphere. This ipsilateral activity may play an important role in the representation and processing of tactile information, in particular when the sense of touch involves both sides of the body. Our work in the whisker system of awake mice reveals that neocortical ipsilateral activity, in particular that of deep layer excitatory neurons of secondary somatosensory cortex (S2), contains information about the presence and the velocity of unilateral tactile stimuli, which supports a key role for S2 in integrating tactile information across both body sides.

Competing Interest Statement

The authors have declared no competing interest.

Footnotes

  • The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Copyright 
The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. All rights reserved. No reuse allowed without permission.
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Posted July 18, 2021.
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Ipsilateral stimulus encoding in primary and secondary somatosensory cortex of awake mice
Aurélie Pala, Garrett B. Stanley
bioRxiv 2021.07.16.452704; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.07.16.452704
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Ipsilateral stimulus encoding in primary and secondary somatosensory cortex of awake mice
Aurélie Pala, Garrett B. Stanley
bioRxiv 2021.07.16.452704; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.07.16.452704

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