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Rodent whisker sensation occurs both actively, as whiskers move rhythmically across objects, and in a passive mode in which externally applied deflections are sensed by static, nonmoving whiskers. Passive whisker stimuli are robustly encoded in somatosensory (S1) cortex, and provide a potentially powerful means of studying cortical processing. However, whether S1 contributes to passive sensation is debated. Prior behavioral studies showed that S1 was required for active, but not passive whisker sensation, but these studies assayed passive sensation using simple, aversively conditioned behaviors that may not be cortex-dependent. We developed two cognitively complex, appetitively conditioned tasks to assay passive sensation: detection of unilateral whisker deflections, and discrimination of right vs. left whisker deflections. Local muscimol inactivation of S1 reversibly and robustly abolished sensory performance on these tasks. Thus, rodent S1 is required for simple passive whisker detection and discrimination, in addition to its known role in more complex active sensation.

※This seminar will be held in Japanese.