Organization of sensory processing in thalamocortical loop circuits connected with thalamic reticular nucleus

2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 23500397
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Neuroscience in general
• Research Institution: Wakayama Medical University
• Principal Investigator: Kimura Akihisa 和歌山県立医科大学, 医学部, 准教授 (20225022)
• Project Period (FY): 2011-04-28 – 2016-03-31
• Keywords: 視床網様核 / 視床核 / 大脳皮質 / 聴覚 / 視覚 / 体性感覚 / 感覚統合 / 注意

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Anatomical and electrophysiological studies of animals (anesthetized rats) have revealed cross-modal interactions of auditory, visual and somatosensory inputs in the thalamic reticular nucleus (TRN) that regulates sensory processing and transmission in the thalamocortical loop circuitry. The interactions take place not only in TRN cells projecting to higher-order thalamic nuclei involved in multisensory integration but also in those projecting to first-order thalamic nuclei so far assumed to be dedicated only to information processing of a given sensory modality. It was also indicated that there exist neural organization that regulates auditory and visual processing based on distinct properties of burst spiking of the two types of TRN cells and afferent connections that mediate cross-modal sensory interactions. Further, studies have revealed somatosensory influence on auditory response of first-order thalamic nucleus cells of which function is specialized for auditory processing.

Free Research Field

神経科学