Alex T. L. Leong1,2, Russell W. Chan1,2, Patrick P. Gao1, Yilong Liu1,2, Xunda Wang1,2, Kevin K. Tsia2, and Ed X. Wu1,2
1Laboratory of Biomedical Imaging and Signal Processing, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China, People's Republic of, 2Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China, People's Republic of
Identifying key differences between the
paralemniscal and lemniscal pathway in the somatosensory system remains a
challenge for electrophysiological studies due to limitations in spatial
coverage. The use of optogenetic fMRI (ofMRI) however, provides an opportunity
to map the large scale differences between the two pathways. Our key findings
include, (1) differences in multisensory and motor system interaction when
stimulating paralemniscal compared to lemniscal pathway and (2) differences in
activity patterns when stimulating paralemniscal pathway within the whisking
frequency range. In all, ofMRI provides an added dimension to existing
electrophysiological studies to advance our understanding of information
processing in thalamocortical circuits.