Vélez Alejandro, Carlson Bruce A
Department of Biology, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, United States.
Elife. 2016 Jun 21;5:e16851. doi: 10.7554/eLife.16851.
Recently, we reported evidence for a novel mechanism of peripheral sensory coding based on oscillatory synchrony. Spontaneously oscillating electroreceptors in weakly electric fish (Mormyridae) respond to electrosensory stimuli with a phase reset that results in transient synchrony across the receptor population (Baker et al., 2015). Here, we asked whether the central electrosensory system actually detects the occurrence of synchronous oscillations among receptors. We found that electrosensory stimulation elicited evoked potentials in the midbrain exterolateral nucleus at a short latency following receptor synchronization. Frequency tuning in the midbrain resembled peripheral frequency tuning, which matches the intrinsic oscillation frequencies of the receptors. These frequencies are lower than those in individual conspecific signals, and instead match those found in collective signals produced by groups of conspecifics. Our results provide further support for a novel mechanism for sensory coding based on the detection of oscillatory synchrony among peripheral receptors.
最近，我们报道了一种基于振荡同步的外周感觉编码新机制的证据。弱电鱼（长颌鱼科）中自发振荡的电感受器对电感觉刺激产生相位重置反应，导致感受器群体间出现短暂同步（贝克等人，2015年）。在此，我们探究中枢电感觉系统是否真的能检测到感受器之间同步振荡的发生。我们发现，在感受器同步后短潜伏期内，电感觉刺激能在中脑外侧核诱发诱发电位。中脑的频率调谐类似于外周频率调谐，与感受器的固有振荡频率相匹配。这些频率低于单个同种信号中的频率，而是与同种个体群体产生的集体信号中的频率相匹配。我们的结果为基于检测外周感受器间振荡同步的感觉编码新机制提供了进一步支持。
