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Cross-Modal Interaction and Integration Through Stimulus-Specific Adaptation in the Thalamic Reticular Nucleus of Rats

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Abstract

Stimulus-specific adaptation (SSA), defined as a decrease in responses to a common stimulus that only partially generalizes to other rare stimuli, is a widespread phenomenon in the brain that is believed to be related to novelty detection. Although cross-modal sensory processing is also a widespread phenomenon, the interaction between the two phenomena is not well understood. In this study, the thalamic reticular nucleus (TRN), which is regarded as a hub of the attentional system that contains multi-modal neurons, was investigated. The results showed that SSA existed in an interactive oddball stimulation, which mimics stimulation changes from one modality to another. In the bimodal integration, SSA to bimodal stimulation was stronger than to visual stimulation alone but similar to auditory stimulation alone, which indicated a limited integrative effect. Collectively, the present results provide evidence for independent cross-modal processing in bimodal TRN neurons.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to Yale E. Cohen for editing the manuscript and Xiaokai Kou for his help with the experiments. This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31872768, 32171044, and 32100827), and Zhejiang University K.P. Chao’s High Technology Development Foundation.

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  1. Yumei Gong and Yuying Zhai contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neurology of the Second Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Interdisciplinary Institute of Neuroscience and Technology, College of Biomedical Engineering and Instrument Science, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310029, China

    Yumei Gong, Yuying Zhai, Xinyu Du, Peirun Song, Haoxuan Xu, Qichen Zhang & Xiongjie Yu

  2. Key Laboratory for Biomedical Engineering of Ministry of Education, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310027, China

    Yumei Gong, Peirun Song, Haoxuan Xu, Qichen Zhang & Xiongjie Yu

  3. Zhejiang Provincial Key Laboratory of Cardio-Cerebral Vascular Detection Technology and Medicinal Effectiveness Appraisal, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310027, China

    Yumei Gong & Xiongjie Yu

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  1. Yumei Gong
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  2. Yuying Zhai
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Correspondence to Xiongjie Yu.

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Gong, Y., Zhai, Y., Du, X. et al. Cross-Modal Interaction and Integration Through Stimulus-Specific Adaptation in the Thalamic Reticular Nucleus of Rats. Neurosci. Bull. 38, 785–795 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12264-022-00827-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12264-022-00827-8

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