Attention-related, cross-modality modulation of somatosensory neurons in primate ventrobasal (VB) thalamus. Morrow, T. J. & Casey, K. L. Somatosens Mot Res, 17(2):133-44, 2000.
abstract   bibtex   
VA Medical Center and Department of Neurology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor 48105, USA. ruscat@umich.edu Attention-related modulation (AM) of the somatosensory responses of single neurons has been demonstrated in the cerebral cortex and medullary dorsal horn, but not in the ventrobasal thalamus. The somatically evoked activity was recorded of single units in the ventral posterior lateral thalamus (VPL) of awake monkeys while they detected the termination of task-relevant somatic or visual stimuli. Eighteen of 56 somatically responsive VPL neurons are reported that were recorded for enough time for a complete analysis of their responses during both the visual and somatic attention tasks. All neurons were spontaneously active and responded either to innocuous cutaneous (13/18) or deep (5/18) stimuli. Seven neurons (7/18, 38.8%) showed AM of somatosensory responsiveness. Two cells (2/7, 28.6%) showed AM only during the visual task, two others (2/7, 28.6%) only during the somatosensory task, and three cells (3/7, 42.8%) showed AM during both tasks. All five cells showing AM during the somatosensory task had enhanced responses to the task-relevant somatic stimulus. In contrast, the somatosensory responses of all five cells showing AM during the visual task were reduced. It is concluded that selective attention is associated with a modality specific modulation of the somatosensory responses of a sub-population of neurons within the primate VPL nucleus.
@article{ Morrow_Casey00,
  author = {Morrow, T. J. and Casey, K. L.},
  title = {Attention-related, cross-modality modulation of somatosensory neurons
	in primate ventrobasal (VB) thalamus},
  journal = { Somatosens Mot Res },
  year = {2000},
  volume = {17},
  pages = {133-44},
  number = {2},
  abstract = { VA Medical Center and Department of Neurology, University of Michigan,
	Ann Arbor 48105, USA. ruscat@umich.edu Attention-related modulation
	(AM) of the somatosensory responses of single neurons has been demonstrated
	in the cerebral cortex and medullary dorsal horn, but not in the
	ventrobasal thalamus. The somatically evoked activity was recorded
	of single units in the ventral posterior lateral thalamus (VPL) of
	awake monkeys while they detected the termination of task-relevant
	somatic or visual stimuli. Eighteen of 56 somatically responsive
	VPL neurons are reported that were recorded for enough time for a
	complete analysis of their responses during both the visual and somatic
	attention tasks. All neurons were spontaneously active and responded
	either to innocuous cutaneous (13/18) or deep (5/18) stimuli. Seven
	neurons (7/18, 38.8%) showed AM of somatosensory responsiveness.
	Two cells (2/7, 28.6%) showed AM only during the visual task, two
	others (2/7, 28.6%) only during the somatosensory task, and three
	cells (3/7, 42.8%) showed AM during both tasks. All five cells showing
	AM during the somatosensory task had enhanced responses to the task-relevant
	somatic stimulus. In contrast, the somatosensory responses of all
	five cells showing AM during the visual task were reduced. It is
	concluded that selective attention is associated with a modality
	specific modulation of the somatosensory responses of a sub-population
	of neurons within the primate VPL nucleus.},
  en_number = {2.11:17}
}

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