Mapping brain state-dependent sensory responses across the mouse cortex

Year: 2024

Authors: Montagni E., Resta F., Tort-Colet N., Scaglione A., Mazzamuto G., Destexhe A., Pavone FS., Mascaro ALA.

Autors Affiliation: European Lab Nonlinear Spect LENS, Sesto Fiorentino, Italy; CNR, Neurosci Inst, Pisa, Italy; CNR, Natl Inst Opt, I-50019 Sesto Fiorentino, Italy; Paris Saclay Univ, Inst Neurosci NeuroPSI, CNRS, Saclay, France; Univ Florence, Dept Phys & Astron, Sesto Fiorentino, Italy; Barcelonab Brain Res Ctr, Barcelona, Spain; Hosp del Mar, Med Res Inst, Barcelona, Spain.

Abstract: Sensory information must be integrated across a distributed brain network for stimulus processing and perception. Recent studies have revealed specific spatiotemporal patterns of cortical activation for the early and late components of sensory-evoked responses, which are associated with stimulus features and perception, respectively. Here, we investigated how the brain state influences the sensory-evoked activation across the mouse cortex. We utilized isoflurane to modulate the brain state and conducted wide-field calcium imaging of Thy1-GCaMP6f mice to monitor distributed activation evoked by multi- whisker stimulation. Our findings reveal that the level of anesthesia strongly shapes the spatiotemporal features and the functional connectivity of the sensory-activated network. As anesthesia levels decrease, we observe increasingly complex responses, accompanied by the emergence of the late component within the sensory-evoked response. The persistence of the late component under anesthesia raises new questions regarding the potential existence of perception during unconscious states.

Journal/Review: ISCIENCE

Volume: 27 (5)      Pages from: 109692-1  to: 109692-17

More Information: This work has been funded by the European Community (Human Brain Project, H2020-785907 and H2020-945539). In addition, this project has been supported by the Italian Ministry for Universities and Research, project THE Tuscany Health Ecosystem ECS_00000017 MUR_ PNRR, and in the framework of Eurobioimaging (ESFRI research infrastructure) -Advanced Light Microscopy Italian Node. The study was supported by the European Unio n’s Horizon 2020 Framework Programme for Research and Innovation under grant agreement no. 654148 Laserlab-Europe. We also thank Dr. Giuseppe De Vito for support on statistical analysis. We thank the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) for financial and technical support.
KeyWords: Functional Connectivity; Touch; Task; Representation; Variability; Activation; Anesthesia; Dynamics; Decision; Fmri
DOI: 10.1016/j.isci.2024.109692