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Change detection by thalamic reticular neurons

Nature Neuroscience volume 12, pages 1165–1170 (2009)Cite this article

Abstract

The thalamic reticular nucleus (TRN) is thought to function in the attentional searchlight. We analyzed the detection of deviant acoustic stimuli by TRN neurons and the consequences of deviance detection on the TRN target, the medial geniculate body (MGB) of the rat. TRN neurons responded more strongly to pure-tone stimuli presented as deviant stimuli (low appearance probability) than those presented as standard stimuli (high probability) (deviance-detection index = 0.321). MGB neurons also showed deviance detection in this procedure, albeit to a smaller extent (deviance-detection index = 0.154). TRN neuron deviance detection either enhanced (14 neurons) or suppressed (27 neurons) MGB neuronal responses to a probe stimulus. Both effects were neutralized by inactivation of the auditory TRN. Deviance modulation effects were cross-modal. Deviance detection probably causes TRN neurons to transiently deactivate surrounding TRN neurons in response to a fresh stimulus, altering auditory thalamus responses and inducing attention shift.

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Figure 1: Responses of a TRN neuron to pure-tone stimuli of two frequencies presented in an oddball procedure.
Figure 2: Differential responses of TRN neurons to pure-tone stimuli of two frequencies presented in an oddball procedure.
Figure 3: Differential responses of MGB neurons to pure-tone stimuli presented in an oddball procedure.
Figure 4: Deviance preferences of TRN and MGB neurons.
Figure 5: Effect of the deviant-stimulus procedure on MGB neuronal responses to a probe stimulus.
Figure 6: Effect of TRN inactivation on modulation of MGB neuronal responses by deviant procedures.
Figure 7: Effect of a preceding light stimulus on MGB neuronal responses to sound stimuli.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank A. Palmer and M. Wallace for their critical readings and comments. This work was supported by the Natural Science Foundation of China (Overseas Cooperation Fund) and the Hong Kong Grants Council (PolyU 5412/06M).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. CAS-Hong Kong Joint Research Laboratory for Visuo-Auditory Integration, Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China

    Xiong-Jie Yu, Xin-Xiu Xu, Shigang He & Jufang He

  2. Department of Rehabilitation Sciences, Laboratory of Applied Neuroscience, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong

    Xiong-Jie Yu & Jufang He

Authors
  1. Xiong-Jie Yu
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Contributions

X.-J.Y., S.H. and J.H. designed the experiments. X.-J.Y. and X.-X.X. performed the experiments. X.-J.Y. and J.H. analyzed the results and wrote the manuscript.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Shigang He or Jufang He.

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Yu, XJ., Xu, XX., He, S. et al. Change detection by thalamic reticular neurons. Nat Neurosci 12, 1165–1170 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/nn.2373

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