Electrophysiology data for whsiking sound experiment
Description
This dataset contains data from electrophysiology experiments used in the Ph.D thesis of B. Efron. on the project "Detection and Neural Encoding of Whisker-generated Sounds in Mice." The dataset contains representative data for the main awake experiment of the project, any additional data can be requested from ilan.lampl@weizmann.ac.il. The data files are objects of the class expWhisking. The function to define the class is provided with the data. For any questions regarding the data structure format, please contact ilan.lampl@weizamnn.ac.il. The data relates to the following experiment: we examined if AC neurons encode the sound generated when mice whisk against different objects. Therefore, we recorded neuronal activity (from well-isolated units as well as MUA without discriminating based on spike waveform) from AC of head-fixed mice (n = 5) running on a rotating treadmill, allowing their whiskers to make contact with aluminum foil, attenuated foil, and no object. To diminish the potential confounding involvement of the somatosensory system in the activation of neurons in the AC upon whisking against objects, we severed the mouse's infraorbital nerve (ION), which conveys tactile sensations from the whisker pad and cheek. To discern if changes in firing rates were due to motor commands, we compared neuronal activity elicited by aluminum foil to that of attenuated foil, where the major difference between these two objects is the sound that is produced upon whisking. The motor switched between objects (aluminum, attenuated, and no object) at fixed intervals, moving them toward the whiskers, and whisking behavior was monitored with a high-speed camera.