State-dependent architecture of thalamic reticular subnetworks

Michael M Halassa; Zhe Chen; Ralf D Wimmer; Philip M Brunetti; Shengli Zhao; Basilis Zikopoulos; Fan Wang; Emery N Brown; Matthew A Wilson

doi:10.1016/j.cell.2014.06.025

State-dependent architecture of thalamic reticular subnetworks

Cell. 2014 Aug 14;158(4):808-821. doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2014.06.025.

Authors

Michael M Halassa¹, Zhe Chen², Ralf D Wimmer³, Philip M Brunetti⁴, Shengli Zhao⁵, Basilis Zikopoulos⁶, Fan Wang⁵, Emery N Brown⁷, Matthew A Wilson⁴

Affiliations

¹ Neuroscience Institute, New York University Langone Medical Center, New York, NY 10016, USA; Department of Neuroscience & Physiology, New York University Langone Medical Center, New York, NY 10016, USA; Department of Psychiatry, New York University Langone Medical Center, New York, NY 10016, USA; Picower Institute for Learning and Memory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA. Electronic address: michael.halassa@nyumc.org.
² Department of Psychiatry, New York University Langone Medical Center, New York, NY 10016, USA.
³ Neuroscience Institute, New York University Langone Medical Center, New York, NY 10016, USA; Department of Neuroscience & Physiology, New York University Langone Medical Center, New York, NY 10016, USA; Department of Psychiatry, New York University Langone Medical Center, New York, NY 10016, USA; Picower Institute for Learning and Memory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
⁴ Picower Institute for Learning and Memory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
⁵ Department of Cell Biology, Duke University, Durham, NC 27710, USA.
⁶ Department of Health Sciences and Program in Neuroscience, Boston University, Boston, MA 02215, USA.
⁷ Department of Anesthesia, Critical Care and Pain Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA 02114, USA; Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA; Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA; Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, Institute of Medical Engineering and Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.

Abstract

Behavioral state is known to influence interactions between thalamus and cortex, which are important for sensation, action, and cognition. The thalamic reticular nucleus (TRN) is hypothesized to regulate thalamo-cortical interactions, but the underlying functional architecture of this process and its state dependence are unknown. By combining the first TRN ensemble recording with psychophysics and connectivity-based optogenetic tagging, we found reticular circuits to be composed of distinct subnetworks. While activity of limbic-projecting TRN neurons positively correlates with arousal, sensory-projecting neurons participate in spindles and show elevated synchrony by slow waves during sleep. Sensory-projecting neurons are suppressed by attentional states, demonstrating that their gating of thalamo-cortical interactions is matched to behavioral state. Bidirectional manipulation of attentional performance was achieved through subnetwork-specific optogenetic stimulation. Together, our findings provide evidence for differential inhibition of thalamic nuclei across brain states, where the TRN separately controls external sensory and internal limbic processing facilitating normal cognitive function. PAPERFLICK:

Publication types

Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

Animals
Attention
Behavior, Animal
Cognition*
Limbic System / physiology
Male
Mice
Mice, Inbred C57BL
Thalamic Nuclei / physiology*
Visual Perception

Abstract

Publication types

MeSH terms

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