PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Yu, Chunxiu
AU  - Li, Yuhui
AU  - Stitt, Iain M.
AU  - Zhou, Zhe Charles
AU  - Sellers, Kristin K.
AU  - Frohlich, Flavio
TI  - Theta Oscillations Organize Spiking Activity in Higher-Order Visual Thalamus during Sustained Attention
AID  - 10.1523/ENEURO.0384-17.2018
DP  - 2018 Jan 01
TA  - eneuro
PG  - ENEURO.0384-17.2018
VI  - 5
IP  - 1
4099  - http://www.eneuro.org/content/5/1/ENEURO.0384-17.2018.short
4100  - http://www.eneuro.org/content/5/1/ENEURO.0384-17.2018.full
SO  - eNeuro2018 Jan 01; 5
AB  - Higher-order visual thalamus plays a fundamental but poorly understood role in attention-demanding tasks. To investigate how neuronal dynamics in higher-order visual thalamus are modulated by sustained attention, we performed multichannel electrophysiological recordings in the lateral posterior-pulvinar complex (LP/pulvinar) in the ferret (Mustela putorius furo). We recorded single unit activity and local field potential (LFP) during the performance of the five-choice serial reaction time task (5-CSRTT), which is used in both humans and animals as an assay of sustained attention. We found that half of the units exhibited an increasing firing rate during the delay period before stimulus onset (attention-modulated units). In contrast, the non-attention-modulated units responded to the stimulus, but not during the delay period. Spike-field coherence (SFC) of only the attention-modulated neurons significantly increased from the start of the delay period until screen touch, predominantly in the θ frequency band. In addition, θ power and θ/γ phase amplitude coupling (PAC) were elevated throughout the delay period. Our findings suggest that the θ oscillation plays a central role in orchestrating thalamic signaling during sustained attention.