Prenatal thalamic waves regulate cortical area size prior to sensory processing

Verónica Moreno-Juan; Anton Filipchuk; Noelia Antón-Bolaños; Cecilia Mezzera; Henrik Gezelius; Belen Andrés; Luis Rodríguez-Malmierca; Rafael Susín; Olivier Schaad; Takuji Iwasato; Roland Schüle; Michael Rutlin; Sacha Nelson; Sebastien Ducret; Miguel Valdeolmillos; Filippo M Rijli; Guillermina López-Bendito

doi:10.1038/ncomms14172

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Prenatal thalamic waves regulate cortical area size prior to sensory processing

Journal article

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Prenatal thalamic waves regulate cortical area size prior to sensory processing

Verónica Moreno-Juan, Anton Filipchuk, Noelia Antón-Bolaños, Cecilia Mezzera, Henrik Gezelius, Belen Andrés, Luis Rodríguez-Malmierca, Rafael Susín, Olivier Schaad, Takuji Iwasato, …

Nature communications, Vol.8(1), pp.14172-14172

02/03/2017

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms14172

PMCID: PMC5296753

PMID: 28155854

Abstract

Gap Junctions - metabolism

Ventral Thalamic Nuclei - physiology

Calcium - metabolism

Humans

Mice, Inbred C57BL

Mice, Transgenic

Orphan Nuclear Receptors - genetics

Ventral Thalamic Nuclei - anatomy & histology

Somatosensory Cortex - physiology

Animals

Neuronal Plasticity

Vision, Ocular

Female

Ventral Thalamic Nuclei - embryology

Ventral Thalamic Nuclei - metabolism

Genetics

Neuroscience

Gene Expression

Pregnancy

The cerebral cortex is organized into specialized sensory areas, whose initial territory is determined by intracortical molecular determinants. Yet, sensory cortical area size appears to be fine tuned during development to respond to functional adaptations. Here we demonstrate the existence of a prenatal sub-cortical mechanism that regulates the cortical areas size in mice. This mechanism is mediated by spontaneous thalamic calcium waves that propagate among sensory-modality thalamic nuclei up to the cortex and that provide a means of communication among sensory systems. Wave pattern alterations in one nucleus lead to changes in the pattern of the remaining ones, triggering changes in thalamic gene expression and cortical area size. Thus, silencing calcium waves in the auditory thalamus induces Rorβ upregulation in a neighbouring somatosensory nucleus preluding the enlargement of the barrel-field. These findings reveal that embryonic thalamic calcium waves coordinate cortical sensory area patterning and plasticity prior to sensory information processing.

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Title: Prenatal thalamic waves regulate cortical area size prior to sensory processing
Creators: Verónica Moreno-Juan - Instituto de Neurociencias de Alicante, Universidad Miguel Hernández-Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (UMH-CSIC), 03550 Sant Joan d'Alacant, Spain
Anton Filipchuk - Instituto de Neurociencias de Alicante, Universidad Miguel Hernández-Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (UMH-CSIC), 03550 Sant Joan d'Alacant, Spain
Noelia Antón-Bolaños - Instituto de Neurociencias de Alicante, Universidad Miguel Hernández-Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (UMH-CSIC), 03550 Sant Joan d'Alacant, Spain
Cecilia Mezzera - Champalimaud Neuroscience Programme, Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown, 1400-038 Lisbon, Portugal
Henrik Gezelius - Instituto de Neurociencias de Alicante, Universidad Miguel Hernández-Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (UMH-CSIC), 03550 Sant Joan d'Alacant, Spain
Belen Andrés - Instituto de Neurociencias de Alicante, Universidad Miguel Hernández-Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (UMH-CSIC), 03550 Sant Joan d'Alacant, Spain
Luis Rodríguez-Malmierca - Instituto de Neurociencias de Alicante, Universidad Miguel Hernández-Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (UMH-CSIC), 03550 Sant Joan d'Alacant, Spain
Rafael Susín - Instituto de Neurociencias de Alicante, Universidad Miguel Hernández-Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (UMH-CSIC), 03550 Sant Joan d'Alacant, Spain
Olivier Schaad - Department of Biochemistry, Sciences II, University of Geneva, CH-1211 Geneva 4, Switzerland
Takuji Iwasato - Department of Genetics, SOKENDAI (The Graduate University for Advanced Studies), Mishima 411-8540, Japan
Roland Schüle - Deutsches Konsortium für Translationale Krebsforschung (DKTK), Standort Freiburg, 79108 Freiburg, Germany
Michael Rutlin - Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics, HHMI, Columbia University Medical Center, New York, New York 10032, USA
Sacha Nelson (Author) - Department of Biology and National Center for Behavioral Genomics, Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts 02454, USA
Sebastien Ducret - Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research, Maulbeerstrasse 66, 4058 Basel, Switzerland
Miguel Valdeolmillos - Instituto de Neurociencias de Alicante, Universidad Miguel Hernández-Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (UMH-CSIC), 03550 Sant Joan d'Alacant, Spain
Filippo M Rijli - Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research, Maulbeerstrasse 66, 4058 Basel, Switzerland
Guillermina López-Bendito - Instituto de Neurociencias de Alicante, Universidad Miguel Hernández-Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (UMH-CSIC), 03550 Sant Joan d'Alacant, Spain
Publication Details: Nature communications, Vol.8(1), pp.14172-14172
Publisher: England
Grant note: T32 NS007292 / NINDS NIH HHS
Identifiers: 9923958175301921
Academic Unit: Department of Biology; Benjamin and Mae Volen National Center for Complex Systems; Interdepartmental Program in Neuroscience
Language: English
Resource Type: Journal article

Prenatal thalamic waves regulate cortical area size prior to sensory processing

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