Circuits in the Ventral Medulla That Phase-Lock Motoneurons for Coordinated Sniffing and Whisking

Neural Plasticity ◽

10.1155/2016/7493048 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 2016 ◽

pp. 1-9 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

Martin Deschênes ◽

Anastasia Kurnikova ◽

Michael Elbaz ◽

David Kleinfeld

Keyword(s):

Exploratory Behavior ◽

Phase Lock ◽

Ventral Medulla ◽

Sensory Modalities ◽

Master Clock ◽

Stereotypical Movements

The exploratory behavior of rodents is characterized by stereotypical movements of the vibrissae, nose, and head, which are phase locked with rapid respiration, that is, sniffing. Here we review the brainstem circuitry that coordinates these actions and propose that respiration may act as a master clock for binding orofacial inputs across different sensory modalities.

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Reaction Time and Brain Waves in Omitted Stimulus Tasks

Journal of Psychophysiology ◽

10.1027/0269-8803/a000001 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 24 (1) ◽

pp. 1-6 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Oscar H. Hernández ◽

Muriel Vogel-Sprott

Keyword(s):

Reaction Time ◽

Cognitive Processes ◽

Young Male ◽

Event Related Potential ◽

Auditory Stimuli ◽

Motor Action ◽

Cognitive Component ◽

Sensory Modalities ◽

Two Measures ◽

Somatosensory Stimuli

A missing stimulus task requires an immediate response to the omission of a regular recurrent stimulus. The task evokes a subclass of event-related potential known as omitted stimulus potential (OSP), which reflects some cognitive processes such as expectancy. The behavioral response to a missing stimulus is referred to as omitted stimulus reaction time (RT). This total RT measure is known to include cognitive and motor components. The cognitive component (premotor RT) is measured by the time from the missing stimulus until the onset of motor action. The motor RT component is measured by the time from the onset of muscle action until the completion of the response. Previous research showed that RT is faster to auditory than to visual stimuli, and that the premotor of RT to a missing auditory stimulus is correlated with the duration of an OSP. Although this observation suggests that similar cognitive processes might underlie these two measures, no research has tested this possibility. If similar cognitive processes are involved in the premotor RT and OSP duration, these two measures should be correlated in visual and somatosensory modalities, and the premotor RT to missing auditory stimuli should be fastest. This hypothesis was tested in 17 young male volunteers who performed a missing stimulus task, who were presented with trains of auditory, visual, and somatosensory stimuli and the OSP and RT measures were recorded. The results showed that premotor RT and OSP duration were consistently related, and that both measures were shorter with respect to auditory stimuli than to visual or somatosensory stimuli. This provides the first evidence that the premotor RT is related to an attribute of the OSP in all three sensory modalities.

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