Article
Neurosciences
Jennifer Brown, Ian Anton Oldenburg, Gregory Telian, Sandon Griffin, Mieke Voges, Vedant Jain, Hillel Adesnik
Summary: Active haptic sensation is crucial for object identification, with animals needing to summate input from multiple whiskers specifically along the whisker arc. Cortical neurons across whiskers encode each orientation, and acute optogenetic manipulation reveals that infragranular layers alone are insufficient to solve the task.
Article
Neurosciences
Lidia Alonso-Nanclares, J. Rodrigo Rodriguez, Angel Merchan-Perez, Juncal Gonzalez-Soriano, Sergio Plaza-Alonso, Nicolas Cano-Astorga, Robert K. K. Naumann, Michael Brecht, Javier DeFelipe
Summary: The study aimed to compare the synaptic characteristics between the small brain of Etruscan shrew and the larger human brain. The findings showed that while some synaptic characteristics are similar, there are significant differences in the number and size of synapses, suggesting adaptations of synaptic circuits to specific functions.
JOURNAL OF COMPARATIVE NEUROLOGY
(2023)
Article
Neurosciences
Celia Gasselin, Benoit Hohl, Arthur Vernet, Sylvain Crochet, Carl C. H. Petersen
Summary: Nicotinic input selectively depolarizes a subtype of GABAergic neurons, leading to disinhibition during active sensorimotor processing in the somatosensory cortex. Nicotinic disinhibition in the somatosensory cortex may contribute to the integration of top-down and motor-related signals, essential for tactile perception and learning.
Article
Neurosciences
Tobias Maximilian Breuer, Patrik Krieger
Summary: The effect of sensory deprivation on the anatomical and physiological properties of two types of layer 6 corticothalamic pyramidal cells in mouse somatosensory barrel cortex was investigated. The study found differences in dendritic morphology and firing frequency between the two cell types, as well as the impact of sensory deprivation on these differences.
EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF NEUROSCIENCE
(2022)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Xue Zhou, Yiyuan Li, Yu Tian, Marc A. Masen, Yuanzhe Li, Zhongmin Jin
Summary: This study investigated the tactile response to active and passive finger friction using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). The results showed that the sliding modes did not significantly affect the friction property of the skin, but three cortex regions in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) exhibited higher activation level during passive sliding. The study suggests that tribological performance is not a simple parameter for tactile perception, and the cortical hemodynamic activity differs between active and passive touch.
SCIENTIFIC REPORTS
(2023)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Jinghao Lu, Bin Chen, Manuel Levy, Peng Xu, Bao-Xia Han, Jun Takatoh, P. M. Thompson, Zhigang He, Vincent Prevosto, Fan Wang
Summary: The study discovers that pain relief can be achieved through vibrotactile touch by modulating the primary somatosensory cortex (S1) in the brain. Specifically, self-generated signals from whisking play a crucial role in reducing facial nociception.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Evan R. Harrell, Anthony Renard, Brice Bathellier
Summary: This study shows that mice can use their whiskers to discriminate object orientation, and that fast cortical dynamics extract orientation information more closely resembling concurrent psychophysical measurements than single neuron orientation tuning curves, conveying both stimulus and choice-related information.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Senmiao Sun, Michael Brecht
Summary: Endothermy is a key feature of mammalian biology, but certain mammals like the Etruscan shrew enter torpor to conserve energy in harsh environmental conditions. This study found that the Etruscan shrew readily enters torpor even without strong physiological triggers. Furthermore, the medial preoptic nucleus (MPN) of the Etruscan shrew is significantly larger compared to that of rats, suggesting a specialized neural control for torpor in this small mammal.
SCIENTIFIC REPORTS
(2022)
Article
Mathematical & Computational Biology
Bhadra S. Kumar, Aditi Khot, V. Srinivasa Chakravarthy, S. Pushpavanam
Summary: Neurovascular coupling is a bidirectional system where neurons transmit signals to blood vessels for vasodilation, and vessels feedback available oxygen to fuel neural firing. This feedback mechanism influences the formation of neuronal maps in both normal and pathological conditions such as hypoxia and hypoxia-ischemia.
FRONTIERS IN COMPUTATIONAL NEUROSCIENCE
(2021)
Article
Veterinary Sciences
Beatrice Geyer, Nancy A. Erickson, Katja Mueller, Susanne Gruebel, Barbara Hueber, Stefan K. Hetz, Michael Brecht
Summary: The Etruscan shrew is a small mammal used in various research fields. Establishing and maintaining a breeding colony of this species in the laboratory is challenging due to specific husbandry conditions. The authors have successfully established a long-term stable colony of Etruscan shrews with longer life expectancy and larger litter sizes.
JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR LABORATORY ANIMAL SCIENCE
(2022)
Article
Computer Science, Interdisciplinary Applications
Chao Huang, Fleur Zeldenrust, Tansu Celikel
Summary: The study utilized a network model of cortical columns for simulations, finding that the simulated network replicated properties of touch representations and changes in synaptic strength. The simulations revealed the importance of the history of membrane potential in synaptic integration.
Article
Neurosciences
Bhadra S. Kumar, Sarath C. Menon, Sriya R. Gayathri, V. Srinivasa Chakravarthy
Summary: The normal functioning of the brain relies on the interaction between neurons and blood vessels, which begins at the embryonic stage and continues into subsequent developmental stages. A proposed Vascular Arborization Model (VAM) describes the growth of the vascular tree and captures the effect of neural activity on vascular branch density.
FRONTIERS IN NEUROSCIENCE
(2022)
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Bi Bi Marzieh Ahmadi, Mohammad Reza Afarinesh, Leila Jafaripour, Vahid Sheibani
Summary: Autism spectrum disorder is a developmental disorder that affects sensory-motor behaviors. Whisker deprivation induces plastic changes in cortical neurons, but tactile stimulation during the neonatal period can reverse it. This study investigates the effects of tactile stimulation and whisker deprivation on behavioral and histologic features of barrel cortex neurons in juvenile rats treated with valproic acid.
BRAIN AND BEHAVIOR
(2023)
Article
Mathematical & Computational Biology
Linda Ma, Mainak Patel
Summary: This study developed a biologically plausible model of multiple barrels to examine the dynamics of multiwhisker receptive fields within barrels, suggesting that lateral connections between barrels play a key role. The model was able to capture a broad range of experimental observations and compared the dynamics with previous models focusing on a different principle.
JOURNAL OF COMPUTATIONAL NEUROSCIENCE
(2022)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Omer Revah, Felicity Gore, Kevin W. Kelley, Jimena Andersen, Noriaki Sakai, Xiaoyu Chen, Min-Yin Li, Fikri Birey, Xiao Yang, Nay L. Saw, Samuel W. Baker, Neal D. Amin, Shravanti Kulkarni, Rachana Mudipalli, Bianxiao Cui, Seiji Nishino, Gerald A. Grant, Juliet K. Knowles, Mehrdad Shamloo, John R. Huguenard, Karl Deisseroth, Sergiu P. Pasca
Summary: This study demonstrates the potential of transplanting self-organizing neural organoids derived from human stem cells into the somatosensory cortex of rats to develop mature cell types and integrate into sensory and motivation-related circuits. The transplanted cortical neurons exhibit more complex properties than their in vitro counterparts and can drive reward-seeking behavior when optogenetically activated. This approach has the potential to detect circuit-level phenotypes in patient-derived cells that cannot be uncovered using other methods.
Review
Physiology
John J. Tukker, Prateep Beed, Michael Brecht, Richard Kempter, Edvard Moser, Dietmar Schmitz
Summary: This review focuses on recent investigations of intrinsic connectivity in the medial entorhinal cortex (MEC), which have started to describe and quantify both excitatory and inhibitory wiring in the superficial layers of the MEC. These findings contribute to a deeper understanding of the mechanisms underlying spatial navigation and memory.
PHYSIOLOGICAL REVIEWS
(2022)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Leopold Purkart, John M. Tuff, Malav Shah, Lena Kaufmann, Carlotta Altringer, Eduard Maier, Undine Schneeweiss, Elcin Tunckol, Lennart Eigen, Susanne Holtze, Guido Fritsch, Thomas Hildebrandt, Michael Brecht
Summary: Elephants have highly specialized sensory nerves, with their trigeminal ganglion being one of the largest known primary sensory structures.
Article
Neurosciences
Andrea J. J. Knop, Stephanie Spengler, Carsten Bogler, Carina Forster, Michael Brecht, John-Dylan Haynes, Christine Heim
Summary: This study used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to map the precise location of the female genital representation field in the primary somatosensory cortex (S1) in 20 adult women. The results showed that tactile stimulation of the clitoral region activated dorsolateral areas of S1 in an individually-diverse manner. Furthermore, the frequency of sexual intercourse was found to be correlated with structural thickness of the left genital field.
JOURNAL OF NEUROSCIENCE
(2022)
Article
Veterinary Sciences
Beatrice Geyer, Nancy A. Erickson, Katja Mueller, Susanne Gruebel, Barbara Hueber, Stefan K. Hetz, Michael Brecht
Summary: The Etruscan shrew is a small mammal used in various research fields. Establishing and maintaining a breeding colony of this species in the laboratory is challenging due to specific husbandry conditions. The authors have successfully established a long-term stable colony of Etruscan shrews with longer life expectancy and larger litter sizes.
JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR LABORATORY ANIMAL SCIENCE
(2022)
Editorial Material
Neurosciences
Michael Brecht
Summary: This paper discusses the effects of plateau potentials in the hippocampus and cortex. The researchers found that plateau potentials can integrate nonspatial information with spatial maps, which is a functionality that the cortex cannot perform.
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Bence Bagi, Michael Brecht, Juan Ignacio Sanguinetti-Scheck
Summary: By analyzing neural population activity in the prefrontal cortex of rats playing hide-and-seek, researchers were able to discover state-like representations in the rat PFC during unrestrained playful behavior, showing correlations between neural activity and behavior.
Editorial Material
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Eduard Maier, Michael Brecht
Summary: A new study found that the activity of oxytocin neurons changes during birth and lactation. Inhibition from the stria terminalis was found to affect the suckling responses.
Article
Neurosciences
Lidia Alonso-Nanclares, J. Rodrigo Rodriguez, Angel Merchan-Perez, Juncal Gonzalez-Soriano, Sergio Plaza-Alonso, Nicolas Cano-Astorga, Robert K. K. Naumann, Michael Brecht, Javier DeFelipe
Summary: The study aimed to compare the synaptic characteristics between the small brain of Etruscan shrew and the larger human brain. The findings showed that while some synaptic characteristics are similar, there are significant differences in the number and size of synapses, suggesting adaptations of synaptic circuits to specific functions.
JOURNAL OF COMPARATIVE NEUROLOGY
(2023)
Letter
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Lena V. Kaufmann, Rolf Becker, Andreas Ochs, Michael Brecht
Article
Neurosciences
Cindy Ritter, Lennart Eigen, Nora Deiringer, Liesel Laubscher, Michael Brecht
Summary: By studying eight pig species, we found that the size and shape of the rostrum gyrus can be accurately inferred from endocasts. There are variations in the size of the rostrum gyrus among different pig species, and the rostrum gyrus is a conserved neural module.
JOURNAL OF COMPARATIVE NEUROLOGY
(2023)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Elcin Tunckol, Leopold Purkart, Lennart Eigen, Imre Vida, Michael Brecht
Summary: The dorsal penile nerve in humans transmits behaviorally important sensory information and is crucial for the initiation and maintenance of erection. The organization of the dorsal penile nerve in humans is similar to other mammalian species, but differs from other peripheral sensory nerves. The human dorsal penile nerve contains a higher number of sensory axons compared to other species.
SCIENTIFIC REPORTS
(2023)
Article
Biology
Nora Deiringer, Undine Schneeweiss, Lena V. Kaufmann, Lennart Eigen, Celina Speissegger, Ben Gerhardt, Susanne Holtze, Guido Fritsch, Frank Goeritz, Rolf Becker, Andreas Ochs, Thomas Hildebrandt, Michael Brecht
Summary: The study suggests that elephant trunks are highly sensitive to touch and mainly rely on whiskers for perception. Whiskers are more densely located at the trunk tip, with African elephants having more than Asian elephants. Adult elephants show worn-out whiskers on one side due to their lateralized trunk behavior. Elephant whiskers are thick, non-tapered, and arranged in specific high-density arrays along the trunk. They are innervated by approximately 90 axons from multiple nerves. Unlike facial whiskers in other mammals, trunk whiskers do not serve a symmetrical sampling function. The unique features of trunk whiskers are believed to have evolved alongside the manipulative capacities of the trunk.
COMMUNICATIONS BIOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Luke L. Longren, Lennart Eigen, Ani Shubitidze, Oliver Lieschnegg, Daniel Baum, John A. Nyakatura, Thomas Hildebrandt, Michael Brench
Summary: The elephant trunk functions as a muscular hydrostat and consists of complex musculature. The dexterous finger is composed of microscopic radial fascicles, suggesting the importance of muscle miniaturization in elephant dexterity. The trunk-shaft muscles show lateral symmetry and are comprised of various types of longitudinal and radial fascicles. The number of trunk muscle fascicles is estimated to be around 90,000.
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Matias Mugnaini, Dhruv Mehrotra, Federico Davoine, Varun Sharma, Ana Rita Mendes, Ben Gerhardt, Miguel Concha-Miranda, Michael Brecht, Ann M. Clemens
Summary: Little is known about how mammals sense wind. However, recent research has shown that rats can detect airflow using their whiskers. By tracking the movement of whisker tips in rats, researchers discovered that increased airflow led to greater movement of the whiskers, particularly the long supra-orbital whisker. The unique biomechanical properties of this whisker, such as its position, bending, length, and diameter, contribute to its exceptional sensitivity to airflow. Micro-CT imaging also revealed specialized structures in wind-sensitive whiskers that facilitate omnidirectional sensing. The cortical representation of the supra-orbital whisker showed stronger responses to wind stimuli compared to other whisker representations. Trimming wind-responsive whiskers and targeting the follicles with lidocaine injections both resulted in diminished turning responses to airflow, highlighting the functional significance of these whiskers in airflow sensing.
Article
Biochemical Research Methods
Ben Gerhardt, Kristin Klaue, Lennart Eigen, Jutta Schwarz, Stefan Hecht, Michael Brecht
Summary: Here, we introduce a X-ray-visible neural tracer called DiI-CT, which combines the well-known lipophilic indocarbocyanine dye DiI with two iodine atoms. This tracer is visible under microfocus computed tomography (microCT) imaging and retains the excellent tracing properties of DiI. We demonstrate the potential of DiI-CT in studying the vibrissa follicle-sinus complex, a structure with limited visual access and where 3D tissue structure is important, by revealing detailed innervation patterns. In the brain, DiI-CT tracing holds promise for validating indirect connectivity measures such as diffusion tensor imaging. In conclusion, the bimodal dye DiI-CT opens up new opportunities in neuroanatomy.
CELL REPORTS METHODS
(2023)