Arousal dependent modulation of thalamo-cortical functional interaction

Iain Stitt, Zhe Charles Zhou, Susanne Radtke-Schuller and Flavio Fröhlich ()
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Iain Stitt: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Zhe Charles Zhou: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Susanne Radtke-Schuller: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Flavio Fröhlich: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Nature Communications, 2018, vol. 9, issue 1, 1-13

Abstract: Abstract Ongoing changes in arousal influence sensory processing and behavioral performance. Yet the circuit-level correlates for this influence remain poorly understood. Here, we investigate how functional interaction between posterior parietal cortex (PPC) and lateral posterior (LP)/Pulvinar is influenced by ongoing fluctuations in pupil-linked arousal, which is a non-invasive measure of neuromodulatory tone in the brain. We find that fluctuations in pupil-linked arousal correlate with changes to PPC to LP/Pulvinar oscillatory interaction, with cortical alpha oscillations driving activity during low arousal states, and LP/Pulvinar driving PPC in the theta frequency band during higher arousal states. Active visual exploration by saccadic eye movements elicits similar transitions in thalamo-cortical interaction. Furthermore, the presentation of naturalistic video stimuli induces thalamo-cortical network states closely resembling epochs of high arousal in the absence of visual input. Thus, neuromodulators may play a role in dynamically sculpting the patterns of thalamo-cortical functional interaction that underlie visual processing.

Date: 2018
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-04785-6

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