A multi-scale study of thalamic state-dependent responsiveness.

The thalamus is the brain's central relay station, orchestrating sensory processing and cognitive functions. However, how thalamic function depends on internal and external states, is not well understood. A comprehensive understanding would necessitate the integration of single cell dynamics wi...

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Main Authors: Jorin Overwiening, Federico Tesler, Domenico Guarino, Alain Destexhe
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2024-12-01
Series:PLoS Computational Biology
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1012262
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author Jorin Overwiening
Federico Tesler
Domenico Guarino
Alain Destexhe
author_facet Jorin Overwiening
Federico Tesler
Domenico Guarino
Alain Destexhe
author_sort Jorin Overwiening
collection DOAJ
description The thalamus is the brain's central relay station, orchestrating sensory processing and cognitive functions. However, how thalamic function depends on internal and external states, is not well understood. A comprehensive understanding would necessitate the integration of single cell dynamics with their collective behavior at population level. For this we propose a biologically realistic mean-field model of the thalamus, describing thalamocortical relay neurons (TC) and thalamic reticular neurons (RE). We perform a multi-scale study of thalamic responsiveness and its dependence on cell and brain states. Building upon existing single-cell experiments we show that: (1) Awake and sleep-like states can be defined via the absence/presence of the neuromodulator acetylcholine (ACh), which indirectly controls bursting in TC and RE. (2) Thalamic response to sensory stimuli is linear in awake state and becomes nonlinear in sleep state, while cortical input generates nonlinear response in both awake and sleep state. (3) Stimulus response is controlled by cortical input, which suppresses responsiveness in awake state while it 'wakes-up' the thalamus in sleep state promoting a linear response. (4) Synaptic noise induces a global linear responsiveness, diminishing the difference in response between thalamic states. Finally, the model replicates spindle oscillations within a sleep-like state, exhibiting a qualitative change in activity and responsiveness. The development of this thalamic mean-field model provides a new tool for incorporating detailed thalamic dynamics in large scale brain simulations.
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spelling doaj-art-8341d0cf2602477bb9f909366e4758f92025-08-20T01:58:04ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS Computational Biology1553-734X1553-73582024-12-012012e101226210.1371/journal.pcbi.1012262A multi-scale study of thalamic state-dependent responsiveness.Jorin OverwieningFederico TeslerDomenico GuarinoAlain DestexheThe thalamus is the brain's central relay station, orchestrating sensory processing and cognitive functions. However, how thalamic function depends on internal and external states, is not well understood. A comprehensive understanding would necessitate the integration of single cell dynamics with their collective behavior at population level. For this we propose a biologically realistic mean-field model of the thalamus, describing thalamocortical relay neurons (TC) and thalamic reticular neurons (RE). We perform a multi-scale study of thalamic responsiveness and its dependence on cell and brain states. Building upon existing single-cell experiments we show that: (1) Awake and sleep-like states can be defined via the absence/presence of the neuromodulator acetylcholine (ACh), which indirectly controls bursting in TC and RE. (2) Thalamic response to sensory stimuli is linear in awake state and becomes nonlinear in sleep state, while cortical input generates nonlinear response in both awake and sleep state. (3) Stimulus response is controlled by cortical input, which suppresses responsiveness in awake state while it 'wakes-up' the thalamus in sleep state promoting a linear response. (4) Synaptic noise induces a global linear responsiveness, diminishing the difference in response between thalamic states. Finally, the model replicates spindle oscillations within a sleep-like state, exhibiting a qualitative change in activity and responsiveness. The development of this thalamic mean-field model provides a new tool for incorporating detailed thalamic dynamics in large scale brain simulations.https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1012262
spellingShingle Jorin Overwiening
Federico Tesler
Domenico Guarino
Alain Destexhe
A multi-scale study of thalamic state-dependent responsiveness.
PLoS Computational Biology
title A multi-scale study of thalamic state-dependent responsiveness.
title_full A multi-scale study of thalamic state-dependent responsiveness.
title_fullStr A multi-scale study of thalamic state-dependent responsiveness.
title_full_unstemmed A multi-scale study of thalamic state-dependent responsiveness.
title_short A multi-scale study of thalamic state-dependent responsiveness.
title_sort multi scale study of thalamic state dependent responsiveness
url https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1012262
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