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Paper   IPM / Cognitive Sciences / 14333
School of Cognitive Sciences
  Title:   Correlation between Locus Coeruleus Activity and Cortical State: Implications for Sensory Coding in Rat Barrel Cortex
  Author(s): 
1.  Z. Fazlali
2.  Y. Ranjbar-Slamloo
3.  E. Arabzadeh
  Status:   In Proceedings
  Proceeding: Kioloa Neuroscience meeting, 2015, Newcastle, Australia
  Year:  2015
  Supported by:  IPM
  Abstract:
Locus Coeruleus (LC), a major neuromodulatory system in brainstem, affects network activity and sensory processing. Here, we quantified the link between LC activity, cortical state and the spontaneous and evoked neuronal responses in rat Barrel Cortex (BC). We simultaneously recorded single- and multi-unit activity from BC and LC along with prefrontal EEG while presenting brief deflections of various amplitudes to the neurons' principal whisker. Under urethane anesthesia, we characterized two distinct cortical states of synchronized and desynchronized: the ratio of Low (0.5-4 Hz) to High (20-60 Hz) frequency components of EEG (known as the LH ratio) identified the two cortical states with higher LH ratios in the synchronized state. The spontaneous activity of all recorded units in LC exhibited a negative correlation with the LH ratio with an average correlation coefficient of -0.38±0.03 (single-units; n=37), and -0.46±0.03 (multi-units; n=34). BC spontaneous firing rate, on the other hand, was both negatively and positively correlated with the LH ratio across sessions. We quantified BC neuronal responses to whisker stimulation during synchronized and desynchronized states. In the desynchronized state, BC neurons showed lower stimulus detection threshold (20

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