Abstract
We investigated the impact of thalamus on ongoing cortical activity in the awake, behaving mouse. We demonstrate that the desynchronized cortical state during active behavior is driven by a centrally generated increase in thalamic action potential firing, which can also be mimicked by optogenetic stimulation of the thalamus. The thalamus therefore is key in controlling cortical states.
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Acknowledgements
We would like to thank K. Svoboda (Howard Hughes Medical Institute Janelia Farm; Addgene plasmid 20071) and C. Lüscher (University of Geneva; virus) for AAV-ChR2. This work was funded by grants from the Swiss National Science Foundation (C.C.H.P.), Human Frontiers in Science Program (J.F.A.P. and C.C.H.P.), SystemsX.ch (C.C.H.P.), Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (Exc 257 NeuroCure) (J.F.A.P.), a European Research Council starting grant (J.F.A.P.), Région Rhône-Alpes Exploradoc (L.M.J.F.) and Agence Nationale de la Recherche France (project AWAKE CX, ANR-09-JCJC-0028-01) (S.C.).
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J.F.A.P., L.M.J.F. and S.C. conducted experiments and carried out data analyses. C.C.H.P. supervised the project and wrote the manuscript. All authors commented on the manuscript.
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Supplementary Figures 1–8, Supplementary Tables 1–4, Supplementary Methods (PDF 5386 kb)
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Poulet, J., Fernandez, L., Crochet, S. et al. Thalamic control of cortical states. Nat Neurosci 15, 370–372 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/nn.3035
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nn.3035
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