Information Coding through Adaptive Gating of Synchronized Thalamic Bursting

• DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2015.12.068
• Publication Date: 2016-01-15T08:33:14Z
• Authors: Clarissa J. Whitmire; Christian Waiblinger; Cornelius Schwarz; Garrett B. Stanley
• Keywords: Bursting

It has been posited that the regulation of burst/tonic firing in thalamus could function as a mechanism for controlling not only how much but what kind information is conveyed to downstream cortical targets. Yet this gating adaptively modulated on fast timescales by ongoing sensory inputs rich environments remains unknown. Using single-unit recordings rat vibrissa (VPm), we found degree bottom-up adaptation thalamic well synchronization bursting across population along continuum which extremes facilitate detection or discrimination inputs. Optogenetic control baseline membrane potential further suggests may result from an interplay between adaptive changes and synaptic drive thalamus, setting stage intricate strategy upon computation built.