Year: 2024
Type: preprint
Abstract: Although distinct thalamic nuclei encode sensory information for almost all sensory modalities, the existence of a thalamic representation of temperature with a role in thermal perception remains unclear. To address this, we performed high-density electrophysiological recordings across the entire forelimb somatosensory thalamus in awake mice, and identified an anterior and a posterior representation of temperature that spans three thalamic nuclei. We found that these parallel representations show fundamental differences in the cellular encoding of temperature which reflects their cortical output targets. While the anterior representation encodes cool only and the posterior both cool and warm; in both representations cool was more densely represented and showed shorter latency, more transient responses as compared to warm. Moreover, thalamic inactivation showed a major role in thermal perception. Our comprehensive dataset identifies the thalamus as a key structure in thermal processing and highlights a novel posterior pathway in the thalamic representation of warm and cool.
Authors: Tobias Leva, Clarissa J. Whitmire, Ilaria Sauve, Phillip Bokiniec, Charlene Memler, Bibiana M. Horn, Mikkel Vestergaard, Mario Carta, James F.A. Poulet
Language: English
Topic: Ion Channels and Receptors
Subfield: Sensory Systems
Field: Neuroscience
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W4391809436