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The corticothalamocortical circuit drives higher-order cortex in the mouse
Open accessAbstract
An unresolved question in neuroscience relates to the extent to which corticothalamocortical circuits emanating from layer 5B are involved in information transfer through the cortical hierarchy. Using a new form of optical imaging in a brain slice preparation, we found that the corticothalamocortical pathway drove robust activity in higher-order somatosensory cortex. When the direct corticocortical pathway was interrupted, secondary somatosensory cortex showed robust activity in response to stimulation of the barrel field in primary somatosensory cortex (S1BF), which was eliminated after subsequently cutting the somatosensory thalamus, suggesting a highly efficacious corticothalamocortical circuit. Furthermore, after chemically inhibiting the thalamus, activation in secondary somatosensory cortex was eliminated, with a subsequent return after washout. Finally, stimulation of layer 5B in S1BF, and not layer 6, drove corticothalamocortical activation. These findings suggest that the corticothalamocortical circuit is a physiologically viable candidate for information transfer to higher-order cortical areas.
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“Similarly, cortico-fugal (61, 62) and cortico-thalamo-cortical (57, 58) organization is also mainly ipsilateral and known to form feedback control loops.”
From Neural correlates of perceptual decision-making in the primary somatosensory cortex (2026) · cites this paper as [57]
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“The strongest evidence for this claim comes from the somatosensory system, where it was shown recently that the posterior medial nucleus of the thalamus (POm) – a higher-order thalamic nucleus that receives direct input from cortex – can relay information between S1 and S2 (Theyel et al., 2009).”
From Canonical Microcircuits for Predictive Coding (2012) · cites this paper as Theyel et al., 2009
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“For example, posterior thalamic nucleus (POm) may provide a thalamic relay for cortico-cortical information flow between S1 and S2 sensory areas (57) and was shown recently to be indispensable in whisker-based texture discrimination tasks (58).”
From Neural correlates of perceptual decision-making in the primary somatosensory cortex (2026) · cites this paper as [57]
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Metadata
- Authors
- Theyel, B. B., Llano, D. A., & Sherman, S. M.
- Affiliations
- University of Chicago (US)
- University of Chicago Medical Center (US)
- Corresponding author
- Theyel, Brian B
- Venue
- Nature Neuroscience
- Published
- 2009-12-06
- Volume
- 13
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 84-88
- ISSN
- 1097-6256 (ISSN-L)
- 1546-1726
- PMC
- PMC2846438
- OpenAlex
- W2011102093
- Cited by
- 366
- References
- 45
- Citations by year
- 2026: 10 · 2025: 16 · 2024: 23 · 2023: 23 · 2022: 21 · 2021: 42 · 2020: 28 · 2019: 19 · 2018: 21 · 2017: 16 · 2016: 25 · 2015: 27 · 2014: 20 · 2013: 16 · 2012: 25
- FWCI
- 9.55
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Licence
- www.springer.com/tdm (tdm)
- Locations
- Nature Neuroscience (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- National Eye Institute (EY 03038, R01EY003038)
- National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (R01DC008794, DC008320, DC-008794, K08DC008320)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural dynamics and brain function
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience › Neuroscience and Neuropharmacology Research
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Visual perception and processing mechanisms
- Keywords
- somatosensory cortex, secondary somatosensory cortex, primary somatosensory cortex, barrel cortex, thalamus, cortical hierarchy, corticocortical connections
- MeSH terms
- Afferent Pathways, Animals, Animals, Newborn, Biophysics, Brain Mapping, Cerebral Cortex, Diagnostic Imaging, Electric Stimulation, Female, Flavoproteins, Male, Membrane Potentials, Mice, Inbred BALB C, Neural Inhibition, Quinoxalines, Thalamus, Time Factors, Patch-Clamp Techniques, Excitatory Amino Acid Antagonists, Mice, In Vitro Techniques
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