Optogenetic fMRI Reveals Distinct Response Characteristics of Sensory and Limbic Thalamic Spindle-like Activities

Abstract

Spindle-like activities constitute one of the most critical brain-wide oscillatory activities for memory consolidation. Spindle-like activities with different temporal characteristics have been associated with heterogeneous distribution patterns. Studies postulated that such heterogeneous distribution and differences in temporal characteristics of spindle-like activities were determined by differences in corresponding spindle-generation thalamo-cortical circuits. However, no direct evidence has been shown. In this study, we demonstrate distinct brain-wide targets but similar temporal-characteristics dependent cross-modal recruitment property of limbic and sensory thalamically-evoked spindle-like activities. Our work provides direct evidence that spindle-like activities initiated from distinct thalamic nuclei can recruit distinct brain-wide targets