Shelton Andrew M, Oliver David K, Lazarte Ivan P, Grimstvedt Joachim S, Kapoor Ishaan, Swann Jake A, Ashcroft Caitlin A, Williams Simon N, Conway Niall, Tir Selma, Robinson Amy, Peirson Stuart, Akam Thomas, Kentros Clifford G, Witter Menno P, Butt Simon J B, Packer Adam Max
Department of Physiology, Anatomy, and Genetics, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom.
Kavli Institute for Systems Neuroscience, Centre for Neural Computation, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Canada.
Elife. 2025 Jul 16;13:RP98002. doi: 10.7554/eLife.98002.
The claustrum is thought to be one of the most highly interconnected forebrain structures, but its organizing principles have yet to be fully explored at the level of single neurons. Here, we investigated the identity, connectivity, and activity of identified claustrum neurons in to understand how the structure's unique convergence of input and divergence of output support binding information streams. We found that neurons in the claustrum communicate with each other across efferent projection-defined modules which were differentially innervated by sensory and frontal cortical areas. Individual claustrum neurons were responsive to inputs from more than one cortical region in a cell-type and projection-specific manner, particularly between areas of frontal cortex. In vivo imaging of claustrum axons revealed responses to both unimodal and multimodal sensory stimuli. Finally, chronic claustrum silencing specifically reduced animals' sensitivity to multimodal stimuli. These findings support the view that the claustrum is a fundamentally integrative structure, consolidating information from around the cortex and redistributing it following local computations.
屏状核被认为是前脑结构中相互连接性最强的结构之一，但其组织原则在单个神经元层面上尚未得到充分探索。在这里，我们研究了小鼠中已确定的屏状核神经元的特性、连接性和活性，以了解该结构独特的输入汇聚和输出发散如何支持信息流通的绑定。我们发现，屏状核中的神经元通过传出投射定义的模块相互通信，这些模块由感觉和额叶皮质区域进行不同的神经支配。单个屏状核神经元以细胞类型和投射特异性的方式对来自多个皮质区域的输入作出反应，特别是在额叶皮质区域之间。对屏状核轴突的体内成像揭示了对单峰和多峰感觉刺激的反应。最后，慢性屏状核沉默特异性地降低了动物对多峰刺激的敏感性。这些发现支持了这样一种观点，即屏状核是一个从根本上进行整合的结构，整合来自皮质周围的信息，并在局部计算后重新分配这些信息。
