Active and passive touch are differentially represented in the mouse somatosensory thalamus
Fig 3
Influence of whisking on whisker deflection responses in VPM and POm.
(A) Spike rates during quiescence (Q = no whisking) and during whisking (W) for individual neurons (black: whisking rate significantly different from base rate (p < 0.05, shuffle test, see Methods), gray: non-significant change) and population means (VPM: blue line, POm: purple line). (B) Spike rates as a function of whisking amplitudes for VPM (left) and POm (right), individual neurons (black: significant correlation p < 0.05, gray: non-significant increase, based on Student T cumulative distribution function), averages in blue and purple for VPM and POm, respectively. (C) Spike rates as a function of phase in the whisk cycle (gray bars) and a sinusoidal fit to the data (blue and purple for VPM and POm example neurons, respectively). (D) Polar plot of phase signal to noise (SNR, radius) and preferred phase (angle) for VPM (blue) and POm (purple) neurons. Filled circles, neurons with significant phase modulation (p < 0.05, Kuiper test). Phase zero refers to a fully protracted position. (E) Responses to air puffs (teal) during quiescence (Q-Puff) in VPM (left) and POm (right), PSTHs of individual neurons (heat maps, normalized to baseline before air puff and ordered by peak response latency) and population PSTHs. Mean whisker angles (orange lines) and mean whisking amplitudes (orange bars). (F) Same as E but for air puffs during whisking (W-Puff). (G) VPM spike rates during baseline and in response to air puffs when the animal was quiescent (Q) or whisking (W) Baseline: 50 ms windows before, Puff: 50 ms after. Individual neurons (black: rate increase p < 0.05, gray: non-significant increase) and population means (blue). (H) same as G but for POm (purple). (I) Modulation index of Q-Puff and W-Puff spike rates in comparison to baseline. Individual neurons (black) and population means for VPM (blue) and POm (purple), zero modulation indicated by red-dashed line. (J) Modulation index of W-Puff and Touch spike rates in comparison to baseline. Individual neurons (black) and population means for VPM (blue) and POm (purple), zero modulation indicated by red-dashed line. Asterisks represent p-values (*p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001); 3G–3J between conditions: two-sided Wilcoxon signed-rank test; 3I–3J between neuron populations: two-sided Wilcoxon ranked-sum test; Individual neuron comparison (3A, 3G, 3H): one-sided Wilcoxon signed-rank test; exact p-values, N numbers in S1 Table. Data and code underlying this figure can be found here: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.14691035. Source data for panels A, G, H, I, J in S2 Data.