Behaviour-dependent recruitment of long-range projection neurons in somatosensory cortex
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In the mammalian neocortex, segregated processing streams are thought to be important for forming sensory representations of the environment, but how local information in primary sensory cortex is transmitted to other distant cortical areas during behaviour is unclear. Here we show task-dependent activation of distinct, largely non-overlapping long-range projection neurons in the whisker region of primary somatosensory cortex (S1) in awake, behaving mice. Using two-photon calcium imaging, we monitored neuronal activity in anatomically identified S1 neurons projecting to secondary somatosensory (S2) or primary motor (M1) cortex in mice using their whiskers to perform a texture-discrimination task or a task that required them to detect the presence of an object at a certain location. Whisking-related cells were found among S2-projecting (S2P) but not M1-projecting (M1P) neurons. A higher fraction of S2P than M1P neurons showed touch-related responses during texture discrimination, whereas a higher fraction of M1P than S2P neurons showed touch-related responses during the detection task. In both tasks, S2P and M1P neurons could discriminate similarly between trials producing different behavioural decisions. However, in trials producing the same decision, S2P neurons performed better at discriminating texture, whereas M1P neurons were better at discriminating location. Sensory stimulus features alone were not sufficient to elicit these differences, suggesting that selective trans…
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Serial transformation of sensory inputs along bottom-up hierarchical pathways has been observed in rodents engaged in whisker-discrimination tasks, with increasingly stronger association with perceptual choice in S2 and premotor areas rather than wS1.
“Serial transformation of sensory inputs along bottom–up hierarchical pathways has been observed in rodents engaged in whisker-discrimination tasks (8, 9) with an increasingly stronger association with perceptual choice in S2 (10, 11) and premotor areas (12–14) rather than whisker-related wS1 (9).”
From Neural correlates of perceptual decision-making in the primary somatosensory cortex (2026) · cites this paper as [10]
The primary sensory cortex not only retains relatively weak and sparse choice-related activity but also, in this naturalistic behavioral task, directly participates in categorical coding of an all-or-none decision variable into which the majority of neural populations are recruited.
“These observations indicate that the primary sensory cortex not only retains relatively weak and sparse choice-related activity, as it was shown previously (10, 11, 19–25), but also, in our naturalistic behavioral task, directly participates in a categorical coding of all-or-none DV into which the majority of neural populations are recruited.”
From Neural correlates of perceptual decision-making in the primary somatosensory cortex (2026) · cites this paper as [10]
Sensory S1 and S2 cortices have strongly lateralized ipsilateral outputs and are densely and reciprocally interconnected, forming a top-down feedback loop that exhibits choice-related activity.
“In contrast, sensory S1 and S2 cortices have strongly lateralized ipsilateral outputs (43, 59) and are densely and reciprocally interconnected (60) forming a top–down feedback loop that exhibits choice-related activity (10, 11, 22–25).”
From Neural correlates of perceptual decision-making in the primary somatosensory cortex (2026) · cites this paper as [10]
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References 40 · Cited by 334
- Authors
- Chen, J. L., Carta, S., Soldado-Magraner, J., Schneider, B. L., & Helmchen, F.
- Affiliations
- University of Zurich (CH)
- École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (CH)
- Corresponding author
- Helmchen, Fritjof
- Venue
- Nature
- Published
- 2013-06-23
- Volume
- 499
- Issue
- 7458
- Pages
- 336-340
- ISSN
- 0028-0836 (ISSN-L)
- 1476-4687
- OpenAlex
- W2031676034
- Cited by
- 334
- References
- 40
- Citations by year
- 2026: 16 · 2025: 20 · 2024: 23 · 2023: 27 · 2022: 23 · 2021: 32 · 2020: 32 · 2019: 30 · 2018: 29 · 2017: 27 · 2016: 24 · 2015: 25 · 2014: 13 · 2013: 13
- FWCI
- 13.66
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.zora.uzh.ch
- Licence
- other-oa
- www.springer.com/tdm (tdm)
- Locations
- Nature (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Zurich Open Repository and Archive (University of Zurich) (acceptedVersion, other-oa)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- Infoscience (Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne) (submittedVersion)
- Infoscience (Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- Zurich Open Repository and Archive (University of Zurich) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Zurich Open Repository and Archive (University of Zurich)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Tactile and Sensory Interactions
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural dynamics and brain function
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience › Neuroscience and Neuropharmacology Research
- Keywords
- primary somatosensory cortex, secondary somatosensory cortex, primary motor cortex, texture discrimination, sensory representation, two-photon calcium imaging
- MeSH terms
- Afferent Pathways, Animals, Behavior, Animal, Calcium, Discrimination, Psychological, Neurons, Somatosensory Cortex, Vibrissae, Mice
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