Abstract
[...]the authors show a direct, inverse correlation between the amplitude of the stimulation-induced oscillations and the strength of whisking during stimulation; they also demonstrate that this inverse relation with behavior occurs very precisely in time, and rule out potentially confounding variables such as the level of attention. [...]Vekatraman and Carmena make this similarity explicit, showing that the strength of spike inhibition following the immediate burst of stimulation-induced spikes also exhibits a negative dependence on whisking behavior. According to this model, whisking would likely provide a greater level of excitation to thalamic neurons (e.g., by increased sensory inputs or by a greater action of neuromodulators such as acetylcholine), which would counteract hyperpolarization, keeping IT inactivated and decreasing the likelihood of bursts and oscillations.