@article {10.7554/eLife.52665, article_type = {journal}, title = {Pathway-, layer- and cell-type-specific thalamic input to mouse barrel cortex}, author = {Sermet, B Semihcan and Truschow, Pavel and Feyerabend, Michael and Mayrhofer, Johannes M and Oram, Tess B and Yizhar, Ofer and Staiger, Jochen F and Petersen, Carl CH}, editor = {Nelson, Sacha B and Marder, Eve and Nelson, Sacha B and Feldman, Daniel E}, volume = 8, year = 2019, month = {dec}, pub_date = {2019-12-20}, pages = {e52665}, citation = {eLife 2019;8:e52665}, doi = {10.7554/eLife.52665}, url = {https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.52665}, abstract = {Mouse primary somatosensory barrel cortex (wS1) processes whisker sensory information, receiving input from two distinct thalamic nuclei. The first-order ventral posterior medial (VPM) somatosensory thalamic nucleus most densely innervates layer 4 (L4) barrels, whereas the higher-order posterior thalamic nucleus (medial part, POm) most densely innervates L1 and L5A. We optogenetically stimulated VPM or POm axons, and recorded evoked excitatory postsynaptic potentials (EPSPs) in different cell-types across cortical layers in wS1. We found that excitatory neurons and parvalbumin-expressing inhibitory neurons received the largest EPSPs, dominated by VPM input to L4 and POm input to L5A. In contrast, somatostatin-expressing inhibitory neurons received very little input from either pathway in any layer. Vasoactive intestinal peptide-expressing inhibitory neurons received an intermediate level of excitatory input with less apparent layer-specificity. Our data help understand how wS1 neocortical microcircuits might process and integrate sensory and higher-order inputs.}, keywords = {thalamus, cortex, cell-types, layers, EPSPs}, journal = {eLife}, issn = {2050-084X}, publisher = {eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd}, }