• Varun Sreenivasan, Vahid Esmaeili, Taro Kiritani, Katia Galan, Sylvain Crochet, and Carl C H Petersen.
• Laboratory of Sensory Processing, Brain Mind Institute, Faculty of Life Sciences, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland; Centre for Developmental Neurobiology, King's College London, London SE1 1UL, UK.
• Neuron. 2016 Dec 21; 92 (6): 1368-1382.

AbstractFrontal cortex plays a central role in the control of voluntary movements, which are typically guided by sensory input. Here, we investigate the function of mouse whisker primary motor cortex (wM1), a frontal region defined by dense innervation from whisker primary somatosensory cortex (wS1). Optogenetic stimulation of wM1 evokes rhythmic whisker protraction (whisking), whereas optogenetic inactivation of wM1 suppresses initiation of whisking. Whole-cell membrane potential recordings and silicon probe recordings of action potentials reveal layer-specific neuronal activity in wM1 at movement initiation, and encoding of fast and slow parameters of movements during whisking. Interestingly, optogenetic inactivation of wS1 caused hyperpolarization and reduced firing in wM1, together with reduced whisking. Optogenetic stimulation of wS1 drove activity in wM1 with complex dynamics, as well as evoking long-latency, wM1-dependent whisking. Our results advance understanding of a well-defined frontal region and point to an important role for sensory input in controlling motor cortex.Copyright © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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