Carter Andrew W, Chen Spencer C, Lovell Nigel H, Vickery Richard M, Morley John W
School of Medical Sciences, UNSW Australia, Sydney, Australia.
School of Medical Sciences, UNSW Australia, Sydney, Australia; Graduate School of Biomedical Engineering, UNSW Australia, Sydney, Australia; Sydney Medical School, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia.
PLoS One. 2014 Sep 12;9(9):e107617. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0107617. eCollection 2014.
Integration of information by convergence of inputs onto sensory cortical neurons is a requisite for processing higher-order stimulus features. Convergence across defined peripheral input classes has generally been thought to occur at levels beyond the primary sensory cortex, however recent work has shown that this does not hold for the convergence of slowly-adapting and rapidly-adapting inputs in primary somatosensory cortex. We have used a new analysis method for multi-unit recordings, to show convergence of inputs deriving from the rapidly-adapting and Pacinian channels in a proportion of neurons in both primary and secondary somatosensory cortex in the anaesthetised cat. We have validated this method using single-unit recordings. The secondary somatosensory cortex has a greater proportion of sites that show convergence of this type than primary somatosensory cortex. These findings support the hypothesis that the more complex features processed in higher cortical areas require a greater degree of convergence across input classes, but also shows that this convergence is apparent in the primary somatosensory cortex.
通过将输入汇聚到感觉皮层神经元上来整合信息是处理高阶刺激特征的必要条件。一般认为，跨特定外周输入类别的汇聚发生在初级感觉皮层之外的水平，然而最近的研究表明，对于初级躯体感觉皮层中慢适应和快适应输入的汇聚情况并非如此。我们使用了一种用于多单元记录的新分析方法，以显示在麻醉猫的初级和次级躯体感觉皮层的一部分神经元中，来自快适应通道和帕西尼小体通道的输入发生了汇聚。我们使用单单元记录验证了该方法。与初级躯体感觉皮层相比，次级躯体感觉皮层中显示这种汇聚类型的位点比例更高。这些发现支持了这样的假设，即更高皮层区域处理的更复杂特征需要更大程度的跨输入类别汇聚，但也表明这种汇聚在初级躯体感觉皮层中也很明显。
