Peripersonal encoding of forelimb proprioception in the mouse somatosensory cortex

Ignacio Alonso, Irina Scheer, Mélanie Palacio-Manzano, Noémie Frézel-Jacob, Antoine Philippides and Mario Prsa ()
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Ignacio Alonso: University of Fribourg
Irina Scheer: University of Fribourg
Mélanie Palacio-Manzano: University of Fribourg
Noémie Frézel-Jacob: University of Fribourg
Antoine Philippides: University of Geneva
Mario Prsa: University of Fribourg

Nature Communications, 2023, vol. 14, issue 1, 1-16

Abstract: Abstract Conscious perception of limb movements depends on proprioceptive neural responses in the somatosensory cortex. In contrast to tactile sensations, proprioceptive cortical coding is barely studied in the mammalian brain and practically non-existent in rodent research. To understand the cortical representation of this important sensory modality we developed a passive forelimb displacement paradigm in behaving mice and also trained them to perceptually discriminate where their limb is moved in space. We delineated the rodent proprioceptive cortex with wide-field calcium imaging and optogenetic silencing experiments during behavior. Our results reveal that proprioception is represented in both sensory and motor cortical areas. In addition, behavioral measurements and responses of layer 2/3 neurons imaged with two-photon microscopy reveal that passive limb movements are both perceived and encoded in the mouse cortex as a spatial direction vector that interfaces the limb with the body’s peripersonal space.

Date: 2023
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-37575-w

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