Publications by Varun Sreenivasan

Parallel pathways from whisker and visual sensory cortices to distinct frontal regions of mouse neocortex

Carl Petersen, Céline Matéo, Varun Sreenivasan, Alexandros Kyriakatos

The spatial organization of mouse frontal cortex is poorly understood. Here, we used voltage-sensitive dye to image electrical activity in the dorsal cortex of awake head-restrained mice. Whisker-deflection evoked the earliest sensory response in a localiz ...

SPIE-Intl Soc Optical Eng2017

Movement Initiation Signals in Mouse Whisker Motor Cortex

Carl Petersen, Sylvain Crochet, Varun Sreenivasan, Taro Kiritani, Katia Galan, Vahid Esmaeili

Frontal 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 whiske ...

Cell Press2016

Inhibition Patterns the Whisking Rhythm

Carl Petersen, Varun Sreenivasan

In this issue of Neuron, Deschenes et al. (2016) propose that rhythmic inhibition of whisker motor neurons is a key pattern generator underlying exploratory whisking. The inhibitory premotor neurons located in the brain-stem reticular formation are synchro ...

Cell Press2016

Motor Control in the Mouse Whisker System

Varun Sreenivasan

The motor systems of the mammalian brain are a remarkable product of many millions of years of evolution. It is the motor systems that make us and other mammals mobile, that guide our actions in response to sensory information and conversely modulate the v ...

EPFL2015

Parallel pathways from motor and somatosensory cortex for controlling whisker movements in mice

Carl Petersen, Varun Sreenivasan

Mice can gather tactile sensory information by actively moving their whiskers to palpate objects in their immediate surroundings. Whisker sensory perception therefore requires integration of sensory and motor information, which occurs prominently in the ne ...

Wiley-Blackwell2015

Membrane potential correlates of sensory perception in mouse barrel cortex

Carl Petersen, Shankar Sachidhanandam, Yves Emile Alfred Kremer, Varun Sreenivasan, Alexandros Kyriakatos

Neocortical activity can evoke sensory percepts, but the cellular mechanisms remain poorly understood. We trained mice to detect single brief whisker stimuli and report perceived stimuli by licking to obtain a reward. Pharmacological inactivation and optog ...

Nature Publishing Group2013

Motor control by sensory cortex

Carl Petersen, Rachel Aronoff, Fred Marbach, Céline Matéo, Ferenc Mátyás, Varun Sreenivasan, Catherine Wacongne

Classical studies of mammalian movement control define a prominent role for the primary motor cortex. Investigating the mouse whisker system, we found an additional and equally direct pathway for cortical motor control driven by the primary somatosensory c ...

American Association for the Advancement of Science2010