Visual-tactile processing in primary somatosensory cortex emerges before cross-modal experience

TY - JOUR

T1 - Visual-tactile processing in primary somatosensory cortex emerges before cross-modal experience

AU - Bieler, Malte

AU - Sieben, Kay

AU - Schildt, Sandra

AU - Röder, Brigitte

AU - Hanganu-Opatz, Ileana L

N1 - © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

PY - 2017/6

Y1 - 2017/6

N2 - The presumptive unisensory neocortical areas process multisensory information by oscillatory entrainment of neuronal networks via direct cortico-cortical projections. While neonatal unimodal experience has been identified as necessary for setting up the neuronal networks of multisensory processing, it is still unclear whether early cross-modal experience equally controls the ontogeny of multisensory processing. Here, we assess the development of visual-somatosensory interactions and their anatomical substrate by performing extracellular recordings of network activity in primary sensory cortices in vivo and assessing the cortico-cortical connectivity in pigmented rats. Similar to adult animals, juvenile rats with minimal cross-modal experience display supra-additive augmentation of evoked responses, time-dependent modulation of power and phase reset of network oscillations in response to cross-modal light and whisker stimulation. Moreover, the neuronal discharge of individual neurons is stronger coupled to theta and alpha network oscillations after visual-tactile stimuli. The adult-like multisensory processing of juvenile rats relies on abundant direct visual-somatosensory connections and thalamocortical feedforward interactions. Thus, cellular and network interactions ensuring multisensory processing emerge before cross-modal experience and refine during juvenile development. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

AB - The presumptive unisensory neocortical areas process multisensory information by oscillatory entrainment of neuronal networks via direct cortico-cortical projections. While neonatal unimodal experience has been identified as necessary for setting up the neuronal networks of multisensory processing, it is still unclear whether early cross-modal experience equally controls the ontogeny of multisensory processing. Here, we assess the development of visual-somatosensory interactions and their anatomical substrate by performing extracellular recordings of network activity in primary sensory cortices in vivo and assessing the cortico-cortical connectivity in pigmented rats. Similar to adult animals, juvenile rats with minimal cross-modal experience display supra-additive augmentation of evoked responses, time-dependent modulation of power and phase reset of network oscillations in response to cross-modal light and whisker stimulation. Moreover, the neuronal discharge of individual neurons is stronger coupled to theta and alpha network oscillations after visual-tactile stimuli. The adult-like multisensory processing of juvenile rats relies on abundant direct visual-somatosensory connections and thalamocortical feedforward interactions. Thus, cellular and network interactions ensuring multisensory processing emerge before cross-modal experience and refine during juvenile development. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

U2 - 10.1002/syn.21958

DO - 10.1002/syn.21958

M3 - SCORING: Journal article

C2 - 28105686

VL - 71

SP - UNSP e21958

JO - SYNAPSE

JF - SYNAPSE

SN - 0887-4476

IS - 6

ER -