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Summary

By Ehud Ahissar.

Closed-loop connections of the rodent vibrissal system. Sensory information from follicle/whisker complex is transmitted via multiple pathways through the sensory regions of the brain, feeding motor subcircuits of the neocortex, cerebellum, midbrain and brainstem, which in turn feed back to the muscles that move the whiskers. Oval circles indicate the brain regions involved in vibrissal sensory-motor processing (TG, trigeminal ganglion; TN, trigeminal brainstem nuclei; RN, red nucleus; VPMdm and VPMvl, ventroposteromedial complex of the thalamus; SI, primary (barrel) somatosensory cortex; SII, secondary somatosensory cortex; ZI, zona incerta; VL, ventrolateral thalamic nucleus; MCx, motor cortex; BG, basal ganglia; Cer, cerebellum; Pn, pontine nuclei; IO, inferior olive; SC, superior colliculus; POm, posteromedial thalamic nucleus; RF, brainstem reticular formation (primarily, gigantocellular reticular nucleus, raphe magnus nucleus, supratrigeminal region); FN, facial nucleus). Black lines connecting brain regions indicate anatomical connections. Arrows indicate the direction of information flow between brain regions. Connections not labeled with arrows are reciprocal. We thank Naama Rubin for her help in preparing the figures.

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