Paper: Reyes-Puerta V, Kim S, Sun JJ, Imbrosci B, Kilb W & Luhmann HJ, Plos Comput Biol, 2015 [PDF]
The present dataset contains responses from neurons in the barrel cortex of anesthetized rats to brief whisker deflections with specific stimulus features (location and frequency).
All relevant data are contained in the Matlab 7.0 MAT-file Spike_Stim_Data.mat, which contains a structure
for each of the animals included in the study (named Anm_01 to Anm_13).
The employed data format follows loosely that established for the FIND
toolbox.
An 8x16 channels probe was employed for the animals Anm_01 to Anm_09, allowing simultaneous recordings from 21 to 74 neurons (median 50) in 3 to 4 barrel-related columns (median 4). A 1x16 channels probe was used in the remaining animals Anm_10 to Anm_13, allowing simultaneous recordings from 5 to 9 neurons (median 6.5) in a single barrel-related column.
From the total of 437 neurons included in the present study, putative inhibitory (INH, 14.2%, n=62) and excitatory (EXC, 85.8%, n=375) neurons were identified according to their spike width and waveform asymmetry, from which 7% (4 INH, 27 EXC) were located in layer 2/3 (L2/3), 14.9% (15 INH, 50 EXC) in L4, 44.6% (14 INH, 181 EXC) in L5A and 33.4% (29 INH, 117 EXC) in L5B/6. INH neurons presented distinct spike waveforms, and were associated to higher spontaneous activity than their EXC counterparts across all layers (see the corresponding paper for further details).
In each experiment (i.e. data related to a single animal), the following stimulation protocol was repeated for each of the selected (2 to 3) target whiskers. First a block of stimuli was applied at low-frequency, typically containing 200 trials with an inter-trial-interval of 5 to 30 s (thus corresponding to stimulation frequencies between 0.03 and 0.2 Hz). Afterwards blocks of stimuli were applied at higher frequencies (1, 2, 4, 7 and 10 Hz), each of them typically containing 100 trials. Individual blocks of trials were separated by periods of at least 10 s. For all stimuli, the voltage pulse controlling the piezoelectric bimorph actuator was an up-down square step function of 2 ms duration.
For each one of the structures Anm_01 to Anm_13, the following information items are provided into individual fields:
- animal_id (integer): ID number of the animal (1 to 13).
- animal_age (integer): Age of the animal at the day of the experiment (in days).
- animal_weight (integer): Weight of the animal at the day of the experiment (in grams).
- elect_info (string): Probe model used for the experiment. ‘a8x16’ refers to the 8x16 channels probe, and ‘a1x16’ to the 1x16 channels probe. For further details about the probe specifications, please visit the Neuronexus website.
- NeuralID (integer array): Vector containing for each one of the recorded cells their specific ID number. Typically it goes from 1 to N_neurons.
- NeuralLayer (integer array, one-dimensional): Represents for each recorded cell the specific layer at which it is located. Note that in this simplified nomenclature, 2 corresponds to L2/3, 4 to L4, 5 to L5A, and 6 to L5B/6.
- NeuralDepth (integer array, one-dimensional): For each recorded cell, this number represents the specific depth under the cortical surface at which the corresponding probe channel was located. This information was inferred using current source density analysis of the local field potentials upon whisker deflection (see publication for further details).
- NeuralBarrel (string cell array, one-dimensional): For each cell, the specific barrel-related column at which it was located (inferred using voltage-sensitive dye imaging, and confirmed through posthoc histological verification, see publication for further details).
- NeuralCharactInhExc (string cell array, one-dimensional): For each cell, its neural type (‘INH’ for putative inhibitory, ‘EXC’ for putative excitatory, see above).
- Block_XX_Whk_YY_Frq_ZZ: Structures containing the information related to the different blocks of trials (see following section for further details).
For each block of trials recorded in a specific experiment (i.e. individual animal), a structure was created containing the corresponding information. These structures follow the nomenclature Block_XX_Whk_YY_Frq_ZZ, in which XX denotes the ID number of the block (thus representing their sequential order of recording), YY denotes the specific stimulated whisker (only one whisker in each block), and ZZ the frequency of stimulation. Each block structure contains the following fields:
- stim_whisker (string): Whisker used for stimulation within the block.
- stim_freq (double): Frequency used for stimulation (in Hertz).
- block_time_start (double): Total time (with respect to the beginning of the recording) at which the block of stimuli starts (in secs).
- block_time_end (double): Total time (with respect to the beginning of the recording) at which the block of stimuli ends (in secs).
- trials(:) (struct array, one-dimensional): Structures containing the information related to the different trials (see following section for further details).
Each trial in the present dataset contains the spike times of all neurons within a time window of 100 ms after whisker stimulation. For each one of the structures in Anm_ID.Block_XX_Whk_YY_Frq_ZZ.trials(:), the following information items are provided into individual fields:
- trial_time_start (double): Total time (with respect to the beginning of the recording) at which the trial starts (in secs).
- trial_time_end (double): Total time (with respect to the beginning of the recording) at which the trial ends (in secs).
- NeuralTimeStamp (double cell array, one-dimensional): For each recorded cell, time stamps of the detected and sorted spikes within a time window of 100 ms after whisker stimulation. Time values are given in seconds and are global, i.e. with respect to the beginning of the recording. Further specifications of the recorded cells can be found within the fields Anm_ID.Neural* (see above).