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Behavioral detection of tactile stimuli during 7–12 Hz cortical oscillations in awake rats

Abstract

Prominent 7–12 Hz oscillations in the primary somatosensory cortex (S1) of awake but immobile rats might represent a seizure-like state1 in which neuronal burst firing renders animals unresponsive to incoming tactile stimuli; others have proposed2,3,4 that these oscillations are analogous to human μ rhythm5,6,7. To test whether rats can respond to tactile stimuli during 7–12 Hz oscillatory activity, we trained head-immobilized awake animals to indicate whether they could detect the occurrence of transient whisker deflections while we recorded local field potentials (LFPs) from microelectrode arrays implanted bilaterally in the S1 whisker representation area. They responded rapidly and reliably, suggesting that this brain rhythm represents normal physiological activity that does not preclude perception.

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Figure 1: Behavioral responses during 7–12 Hz LFP oscillation.
Figure 2: Response latencies and peristimulus 9 Hz amplitude.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by grants from the US National Institutes of Health (DE11451 and DE13810) and from the United States–Israel Binational Science Foundation (#2000299).

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Correspondence to Miguel A L Nicolelis.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Wiest, M., Nicolelis, M. Behavioral detection of tactile stimuli during 7–12 Hz cortical oscillations in awake rats. Nat Neurosci 6, 913–914 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1038/nn1107

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