Cross-modal responses in the primary visual cortex encode complex objects and correlate with tactile discrimination

• Autor(a) principal: Vasconcelos, Nivaldo
• Data de Publicação: 2011
• Outros Autores: Pantoja, Janaina, Belchior, Hindiael, Caixeta, Fábio Viegas, Faber, Jean, Freire, Marco Aurelio M., Cota, Vinícius Rosa, Macedo, Edson Anibal de, Laplagne, Diego Andrés, Gomes, Herman Martins, Ribeiro, Sidarta Tollendal Gomes
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Institucional da UFRN
• Texto Completo: https://repositorio.ufrn.br/jspui/handle/123456789/23109
• topic: multisensory integration; distributed processing; pattern classification; computer grid; multielectrode

Cortical areas that directly receive sensory inputs from the thalamus were long thought to be exclusively dedicated to a single modality, originating separate labeled lines. In the past decade, however, several independent lines of research have demonstrated cross-modal responses in primary sensory areas. To investigate whether these responses represent behaviorally relevant information, we carried out neuronal recordings in the primary somatosensory cortex (S1) and primary visual cortex (V1) of rats as they performed whiskerbased tasks in the dark. During the free exploration of novel objects, V1 and S1 responses carried comparable amounts of information about object identity. During execution of an aperture tactile discrimination task, tactile recruitment was slower and less robust in V1 than in S1. However, V1 tactile responses correlated significantly with performance across sessions. Altogether, the results support the notion that primary sensory areas have a preference for a given modality but can engage in meaningful cross-modal processing depending on task demand.