Whisker stimulation reinforces a resting-state network in the barrel cortex: Nested oscillations and avalanches.

Overview

1. Padova Neuroscience Center, University of Padova, Padova, Italy
2. Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Padova, Padova, Italy
3. Department of Physics, University of Milano Bicocca, Milan, Italy
4. Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Padova, Padova, Italy
5. Department of Neuroscience, University of Padova, Padova, Italy

Abstract

The cerebral cortex operates in a state of restless activity, even in the absence of external stimuli. Collective neuronal activities, such as neural avalanches and synchronized oscillations, are also found under rest conditions, and these features have been suggested to support sensory processing, brain readiness for rapid responses, and computational efficiency. The rat barrel cortex and thalamus circuit, with its somatotopic organization for processing sensory inputs from the whiskers, provides a powerful system to explore such interplay. To characterize these resting state circuits, we perform simultaneous multi-electrode recordings in rats’ barrel cortex and thalamus. During spontaneous activity, oscillations with frequencies centered around 11 Hz are detected concomitantly with slow oscillations below 4 Hz, as well as power-law distributed avalanches. The phase of the lower-frequency oscillation appears to modulate the higher-frequency amplitude, and it has a role in gating avalanche occurrences. We then record neural activity during controlled whisker movements and observe that the 11 Hz barrel circuit active at rest is indeed the one involved in response to whisker stimulation. We finally show how a thalamic-driven firing-rate model can describe the entire phenomenology observed at resting state and predict the response of the barrel cortex to controlled whisker movement, suggesting that the same intrinsic dynamics underlying resting-state activity also shape sensory responses.

Reproduced under the paper's license (CC BY), from the paper cited above.

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All data and custom analysis code supporting the findings of this study will be made publicly available on GitHub prior to publication at: https://github.com/benedetta-mariani.

Reproduced under the paper's license (CC BY), from the paper cited above.

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Version 2, 28 September 2026

• Authors: added Ramón Guevara (0000-0002-9292-8046); Mattia Tambaro (0000-0002-7593-5084); Alessandro Leparulo (0000-0002-9110-1055); Stefano Vassanelli (0000-0003-0389-8023); removed Ramón Guevara; Mattia Tambaro; Alessandro Leparulo; Stefano Vassanelli

Version 1, 27 September 2026: the first record

Recorded: type, language, journal, volume, issue, pages, dates, 7 authors, 11 MeSH terms, 3 funders, 83 references.

Cite

This paper

Mariani, B., Guevara, R., Tambaro, M., Maschietto, M., Leparulo, A., Vassanelli, S., & Suweis, S. (2026). Whisker stimulation reinforces a resting-state network in the barrel cortex: Nested oscillations and avalanches. PLoS computational biology, 22(7), e1014521. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1014521

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