TY - JOUR
T1 - Tactile modulation of whisking via the brainstem loop
T2 - Statechart modeling and experimental validation
AU - Sherman, Dana
AU - Oram, Tess
AU - Deutsch, Dudi
AU - Gordon, Goren
AU - Ahissar, Ehud
AU - Harel, David
N1 - Israel Science Foundation [749/10]; United States-Israel Binational Science Foundation (BSF) [2011243]; Estate of Irving and Toby Bieber and Lord David Alliance, CBE; Minerva Foundation; Federal German Ministry for Education and Research; FP7 BIOTACT project [ICT 215910]This work was supported by the Israel Science Foundation grant #749/10, the United States-Israel Binational Science Foundation (BSF) grant 2011243, the Estate of Irving and Toby Bieber and Lord David Alliance, CBE, and by Minerva Foundation funded by the Federal German Ministry for Education and Research. E.A. holds the Helen Diller Family Professorial Chair of Neurobiology. Video analysis was performed using the BIOTACT Whisker Tracking Tool, which was jointly created by the International School of Advanced Studies in Trieste, the University of Sheffield, and the Weizmann Institute in Rehovot, under the auspices of the FP7 BIOTACT project (ICT 215910). The authors are particularly grateful for the contributions of Igor Perkon and Goren Gordon to programming parts of the tracking tool. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
PY - 2013/11/27
Y1 - 2013/11/27
N2 - Rats repeatedly sweep their facial whiskers back and forth in order to explore their environment. Such explorative whisking appears to be driven by central pattern generators (CPGs) that operate independently of direct sensory feedback. Nevertheless, whisking can be modulated by sensory feedback, and it has been hypothesized that some of this modulation already occurs within the brainstem. However, the interaction between sensory feedback and CPG activity is poorly understood. Using the visual language of statecharts, a dynamic, bottom-up computerized model of the brainstem loop of the whisking system was built in order to investigate the interaction between sensory feedback and CPG activity during whisking behavior. As a benchmark, we used a previously quantified closed-loop phenomenon of the whisking system, touched-induced pump (TIP), which is thought to be mediated by the brainstem loop. First, we showed that TIPs depend on sensory feedback, by comparing TIP occurrence in intact rats with that in rats whose sensory nerve was experimentally cut. We then inspected several possible feedback mechanisms of TIPs using our model. The model ruled out all hypothesized mechanisms but one, which adequately simulated the corresponding motion observed in the rat. Results of the simulations suggest that TIPs are generated via sensory feedback that activates extrinsic retractor muscles in the mystacial pad. The model further predicted that in addition to the touching whisker, all whiskers found on the same side of the snout should exhibit a TIP. We present experimental results that confirm the predicted movements in behaving rats, establishing the validity of the hypothesized interaction between sensory feedback and CPG activity we suggest here for the generation of TIPs in the whisking system. Copyright:
AB - Rats repeatedly sweep their facial whiskers back and forth in order to explore their environment. Such explorative whisking appears to be driven by central pattern generators (CPGs) that operate independently of direct sensory feedback. Nevertheless, whisking can be modulated by sensory feedback, and it has been hypothesized that some of this modulation already occurs within the brainstem. However, the interaction between sensory feedback and CPG activity is poorly understood. Using the visual language of statecharts, a dynamic, bottom-up computerized model of the brainstem loop of the whisking system was built in order to investigate the interaction between sensory feedback and CPG activity during whisking behavior. As a benchmark, we used a previously quantified closed-loop phenomenon of the whisking system, touched-induced pump (TIP), which is thought to be mediated by the brainstem loop. First, we showed that TIPs depend on sensory feedback, by comparing TIP occurrence in intact rats with that in rats whose sensory nerve was experimentally cut. We then inspected several possible feedback mechanisms of TIPs using our model. The model ruled out all hypothesized mechanisms but one, which adequately simulated the corresponding motion observed in the rat. Results of the simulations suggest that TIPs are generated via sensory feedback that activates extrinsic retractor muscles in the mystacial pad. The model further predicted that in addition to the touching whisker, all whiskers found on the same side of the snout should exhibit a TIP. We present experimental results that confirm the predicted movements in behaving rats, establishing the validity of the hypothesized interaction between sensory feedback and CPG activity we suggest here for the generation of TIPs in the whisking system. Copyright:
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84896733697&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1371/journal.pone.0079831
DO - 10.1371/journal.pone.0079831
M3 - مقالة
C2 - 24312186
SN - 1932-6203
VL - 8
JO - PLoS ONE
JF - PLoS ONE
IS - 11
M1 - e79831
ER -