Year: 2024
Type: article
Abstract: The cerebral cortex is vital for the perception and processing of sensory stimuli. In the somatosensory axis, information is received by two distinct regions, the primary (S1) and secondary (S2) somatosensory cortices. Top-down circuits stemming from S1 can modulate mechanical and cooling but not heat stimuli such that circuit inhibition causes blunted mechanical and cooling perception. Using optogenetics and chemogenetics, we find that in contrast to S1, an inhibition of S2 output increases mechanical and heat, but not cooling sensitivity. Combining 2-photon anatomical reconstruction with chemogenetic inhibition of specific S2 circuits, we discover that S2 projections to the secondary motor cortex (M2) govern mechanical and thermal sensitivity without affecting motor or cognitive function. This suggests that while S2, like S1, encodes specific sensory information, that S2 operates through quite distinct neural substrates to modulate responsiveness to particular somatosensory stimuli and that somatosensory cortical encoding occurs in a largely parallel fashion.
Source: Nature Communications
Language: English
Subfield: Cognitive Neuroscience
Field: Neuroscience
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $6,790
Funders: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Boston Children's Hospital, National Institutes of Health, Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Center, National Institute of Mental Health, National Eye Institute, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
Awards: G1820584063, G3186357351, HMS/BCH Center for Neuroscience Research, Mechanism and Optimization of CBD-mediated analgesic effects, Spinal Cord Nociceptive Circuits that Deliver Outputs to the Brain to Initiate Pain, Boston Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Center, TissueCyte 1600FC Whole Mount Tissue Scanner, G833713954, G9000235680, Boston Children's Hospital/HMS Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Center, Plasticity of the Retinogeniculate Synapse, CORE GRANT FOR VISION RESEARCH
OpenAlex ID: W4391766836