Ibarra-Castañeda Nereida, Moy-Lopez Norma A, González-Pérez Óscar
Laboratory of Neuroscience, School of Psychology, University of Colima, Colima 28040, Mexico.
Medical Science PhD Program, School of Medicine, University of Colima, Colima 28040, Mexico.
Curr Res Neurobiol. 2022;3. doi: 10.1016/j.crneur.2022.100034. Epub 2022 Mar 11.
Most mammals have sensory tactile hairs, also known as whiskers or vibrissae. Traditionally, whiskers are associated with diverse survival skills, including tactile discrimination, distance assessment, food acquisition, gap crossing, and social interaction. Vibrissae functions are processed in the somatosensorial cortex, commonly referred to as the barrel cortex. Hence, most of the whisker-related research has been focused on this cortical region. However, increasing evidence indicates that the vibrissal system modulates several aspects of hippocampal physiology. This graphical review aims to summarize cumulative evidence indicating that whiskers regulate the neural function and cellularity in several hippocampal subfields. Interestingly, lack of whiskers notably affects neuronal firing in CA1 and CA3 hippocampal subfields, alters spatial mapping, impairs navigational skills, modifies cytoarchitecture, and reduces the adult neurogenesis in the dentate gyrus. This evidence extends our understanding of how whiskers are related to hippocampal function and offers insights to explore novel associations between whisker functions and neural plasticity in the hippocampus.
大多数哺乳动物都有感觉触须,也被称为须毛或触须。传统上,须毛与多种生存技能相关,包括触觉辨别、距离评估、食物获取、跨越间隙和社交互动。触须的功能在体感皮层中处理,通常被称为桶状皮层。因此,大多数与须毛相关的研究都集中在这个皮层区域。然而,越来越多的证据表明,触须系统调节海马体生理学的多个方面。这篇图文综述旨在总结累积证据,表明须毛调节几个海马亚区的神经功能和细胞构成。有趣的是,缺少须毛会显著影响海马CA1和CA3亚区的神经元放电,改变空间映射,损害导航技能,改变细胞结构,并减少齿状回中的成年神经发生。这一证据扩展了我们对须毛与海马功能之间关系的理解,并为探索须毛功能与海马神经可塑性之间的新关联提供了见解。