Sensory processing

Summary

Sensory processing is the process that organizes and distinguishes sensation (sensory information) from one's own body and the environment, thus making it possible to use the body effectively within the environment. Specifically, it deals with how the brain processes multiple sensory modality inputs, such as proprioception, vision, auditory system, tactile, olfactory, vestibular system, interoception, and taste into usable functional outputs. It has been believed for some time that inputs from different sensory organs are processed in different areas in the brain. The communication within and among these specialized areas of the brain is known as functional integration. Newer research has shown that these different regions of the brain may not be solely responsible for only one sensory modality, but could use multiple inputs to perceive what the body senses about its environment. Multisensory integration is necessary for almost every activity that we perform because the combination o

Official source

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sensory_processing

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This course focuses on the cellular mechanisms of mammalian brain function. We will describe how neurons communicate through synaptic transmission in order to process sensory information ultimately leading to motor behavior.

The course starts with fundamentals of electrical - and chemical signaling in neurons. Students then learn how neurons in the brain receive and process sensory information, and how other neurons control the behavior of an animal. Furthermore, memory, learning, and brain disorders will be introduced.

This course will provide a forum in which students engage themselves in learning how to design a scientific project that bridges scales and allows following the causal chain from one scale to the next.

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Thalamic microcircuitry: neurons, synapses, and circuit motifs in receptive field structure and sensory processing

Jane Yi

Our perception of the world is first shaped by the thalamus, a structure composed of many nuclei in the center of our brains. Different nuclei hold different responsibilities - vision (dorsal lateral genicular nucleus; dLGN), audition (medial geniculate nucleus; MGN), somatosensation (ventro-basal nuclei; VB), though many properties across these sensory modalities appear to be universal. In this thesis, we completed a comprehensive characterization of the neurons, connections, and microcircuitries within the rodent VB thalamus. Our most prominent finding is the confirmation of the existence of local interneurons in the VB and the discovery of their profoundly active and diverse role in thalamic processes. Thus, we have observed that the fundamental excitatory and inhibitory neurons of dLGN and VB nuclei and their intrinsic circuit motifs are indistinguishable. Only a few notable differences are, however, present. (1), Principal excitatory neurons of the VB, the thalamocortical (TC) relays, have morphological types that appear to be distributed heteroge-neously throughout the VB whereas dLGN TC morphological types have regional preferences. (2), VB inhibitory local interneurons represent a smaller proportion of the total neuronal popula-tion compared to their dLGN counterparts. The similarities between these thalamic regions great-ly outnumber the differences. It then introduces new questions of how different vision and soma-tosensation of the physical world are when these senses are ultimately represented as binary sig-nals and are processed in similar manners in the thalamus. Following these questions may lead to new therapeutic solutions for retinally blind patients, tactile prostheses, or neurological disorders of sensory perception like schizophrenia.

EPFL2021

Rodents are nocturnal animals gathering information about their surroundings by using highly sensitive detectors laid out on their snout. Like humans use their fingertips to apprehend textures, rodents use their whiskers to build a spatial representation of their environment, locate objects and discriminate fine textures. The most remarkable feature of the somatosensory whisker system consists in the isomorphic correspondence of each whisker with discrete cytoarchitectonic units in layer 4 of the primary somatosensory "barrel" cortex. These layer 4 barrels are the first step towards the integration of the sensory information within the neocortex and form the core of each cortical barrel column. To further our understanding of sensory processing, it becomes evident that studying the synaptic wiring of a specific barrel column will provide useful information. In this thesis work, we specifically investigate the excitatory wiring diagram of the C2 barrel related column. The functional location of our preferred column was mapped in vivo using intrinsic optical imaging upon C2 whisker deflection. The excitatory microcircuit of the C2 barrel column was investigated in vitro using simultaneous multiple whole-cell patch clamp recordings in the current clamp mode. We show that layer 4, through its highly recurrent and strong network, acts as the main excitatory driving force, spreading information across the entire cortical column. We demonstrate that supragranular layers are involved both in intralaminar recurrent circuits and top-down relations with postsynaptic partners in specific subjacent layers. The last relay of the excitation flow consists of the infragranular layers that integrate input from the whole column, and form the output of the cortical computation. Finally, by assessing the diversity of short-term dynamics of a subset of excitatory connections, we point out the complexity of sensory processing and the long journey remaining to unravel the synaptic mechanisms underlying sensory perception.

EPFL2008

Structure and function of the olfactory bulb microcircuit

Michele Pignatelli

The aim of this study is to contribute to understand the physiology of the Olfactory System through detailed microcircuit investigation, adopting advanced electrophysiological and anatomical techniques. Multiple patch clamp recordings allow understanding the structural foundations supporting the network architecture, the biophysical rules adopted by the microcircuit connectivity and the fine dynamic of the synaptic transmission. The study focuses on the Olfactory Bulb microcircuit as a first neuronal processor of sensory inputs. The excitatory elements of the Olfactory Bulb microcircuit are anatomically defined by affiliation to the same receptive field: the Glomerulus. A correlated subthreshold activity between microcircuit elements defines the physiological signature of the microcircuit. We experimentally addressed three fundamental issues: origin of the correlated subthreshold activity, connectivity rules and dynamic of the synaptic transmission. In the first study we attribute the origin of correlated subthreshold activity to a class of pacemaker cells responsible for the synchronization of the population onset and acting therefore as a timer of the microcircuit response. In the second study we investigated the connectivity rules supporting the interaction between excitatory cells. The tight apposition between gap junctions and chemical synapses on the excitatory cells dendrites allows gap junctions to propagate postsynaptic potentials toward surrounding compartments. The result of the propagation is represented by an enhancement in the amplification of the sensory information and an increase in the speed of the reaction time. In the third study we extensively analyzed the mechanisms of the synaptic transmission and the activity dependent properties of synapses, revealing a potential role for the short-term plasticity in the development of the sensory processing. The results of our investigation are going to constitute the foundation of a database available for high definition multi-compartmental modeling of the Olfactory Bulb network.

EPFL2009

Structure and function of the olfactory bulb microcircuit

Michele Pignatelli

EPFL2009

EPFL2008