Cargando…

Spatiotemporal Patterns of Contact Across the Rat Vibrissal Array During Exploratory Behavior

The rat vibrissal system is an important model for the study of somatosensation, but the small size and rapid speed of the vibrissae have precluded measuring precise vibrissal-object contact sequences during behavior. We used a laser light sheet to quantify, with 1 ms resolution, the spatiotemporal...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Hobbs, Jennifer A., Towal, R. Blythe, Hartmann, Mitra J. Z.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2016
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4700281/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26778990
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2015.00356
_version_ 1782408304491757568
author Hobbs, Jennifer A.
Towal, R. Blythe
Hartmann, Mitra J. Z.
author_facet Hobbs, Jennifer A.
Towal, R. Blythe
Hartmann, Mitra J. Z.
author_sort Hobbs, Jennifer A.
collection PubMed
description The rat vibrissal system is an important model for the study of somatosensation, but the small size and rapid speed of the vibrissae have precluded measuring precise vibrissal-object contact sequences during behavior. We used a laser light sheet to quantify, with 1 ms resolution, the spatiotemporal structure of whisker-surface contact as five naïve rats freely explored a flat, vertical glass wall. Consistent with previous work, we show that the whisk cycle cannot be uniquely defined because different whiskers often move asynchronously, but that quasi-periodic (~8 Hz) variations in head velocity represent a distinct temporal feature on which to lock analysis. Around times of minimum head velocity, whiskers protract to make contact with the surface, and then sustain contact with the surface for extended durations (~25–60 ms) before detaching. This behavior results in discrete temporal windows in which large numbers of whiskers are in contact with the surface. These “sustained collective contact intervals” (SCCIs) were observed on 100% of whisks for all five rats. The overall spatiotemporal structure of the SCCIs can be qualitatively predicted based on information about head pose and the average whisk cycle. In contrast, precise sequences of whisker-surface contact depend on detailed head and whisker kinematics. Sequences of vibrissal contact were highly variable, equally likely to propagate in all directions across the array. Somewhat more structure was found when sequences of contacts were examined on a row-wise basis. In striking contrast to the high variability associated with contact sequences, a consistent feature of each SCCI was that the contact locations of the whiskers on the glass converged and moved more slowly on the sheet. Together, these findings lead us to propose that the rat uses a strategy of “windowed sampling” to extract an object's spatial features: specifically, the rat spatially integrates quasi-static mechanical signals across whiskers during the period of sustained contact, resembling an “enclosing” haptic procedure.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-4700281
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2016
publisher Frontiers Media S.A.
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-47002812016-01-15 Spatiotemporal Patterns of Contact Across the Rat Vibrissal Array During Exploratory Behavior Hobbs, Jennifer A. Towal, R. Blythe Hartmann, Mitra J. Z. Front Behav Neurosci Neuroscience The rat vibrissal system is an important model for the study of somatosensation, but the small size and rapid speed of the vibrissae have precluded measuring precise vibrissal-object contact sequences during behavior. We used a laser light sheet to quantify, with 1 ms resolution, the spatiotemporal structure of whisker-surface contact as five naïve rats freely explored a flat, vertical glass wall. Consistent with previous work, we show that the whisk cycle cannot be uniquely defined because different whiskers often move asynchronously, but that quasi-periodic (~8 Hz) variations in head velocity represent a distinct temporal feature on which to lock analysis. Around times of minimum head velocity, whiskers protract to make contact with the surface, and then sustain contact with the surface for extended durations (~25–60 ms) before detaching. This behavior results in discrete temporal windows in which large numbers of whiskers are in contact with the surface. These “sustained collective contact intervals” (SCCIs) were observed on 100% of whisks for all five rats. The overall spatiotemporal structure of the SCCIs can be qualitatively predicted based on information about head pose and the average whisk cycle. In contrast, precise sequences of whisker-surface contact depend on detailed head and whisker kinematics. Sequences of vibrissal contact were highly variable, equally likely to propagate in all directions across the array. Somewhat more structure was found when sequences of contacts were examined on a row-wise basis. In striking contrast to the high variability associated with contact sequences, a consistent feature of each SCCI was that the contact locations of the whiskers on the glass converged and moved more slowly on the sheet. Together, these findings lead us to propose that the rat uses a strategy of “windowed sampling” to extract an object's spatial features: specifically, the rat spatially integrates quasi-static mechanical signals across whiskers during the period of sustained contact, resembling an “enclosing” haptic procedure. Frontiers Media S.A. 2016-01-05 /pmc/articles/PMC4700281/ /pubmed/26778990 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2015.00356 Text en Copyright © 2016 Hobbs, Towal and Hartmann. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Neuroscience
Hobbs, Jennifer A.
Towal, R. Blythe
Hartmann, Mitra J. Z.
Spatiotemporal Patterns of Contact Across the Rat Vibrissal Array During Exploratory Behavior
title Spatiotemporal Patterns of Contact Across the Rat Vibrissal Array During Exploratory Behavior
title_full Spatiotemporal Patterns of Contact Across the Rat Vibrissal Array During Exploratory Behavior
title_fullStr Spatiotemporal Patterns of Contact Across the Rat Vibrissal Array During Exploratory Behavior
title_full_unstemmed Spatiotemporal Patterns of Contact Across the Rat Vibrissal Array During Exploratory Behavior
title_short Spatiotemporal Patterns of Contact Across the Rat Vibrissal Array During Exploratory Behavior
title_sort spatiotemporal patterns of contact across the rat vibrissal array during exploratory behavior
topic Neuroscience
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4700281/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26778990
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2015.00356
work_keys_str_mv AT hobbsjennifera spatiotemporalpatternsofcontactacrosstheratvibrissalarrayduringexploratorybehavior
AT towalrblythe spatiotemporalpatternsofcontactacrosstheratvibrissalarrayduringexploratorybehavior
AT hartmannmitrajz spatiotemporalpatternsofcontactacrosstheratvibrissalarrayduringexploratorybehavior