LAMINAR ENCODING OF TEMPERATURE IN THE MOUSE POSTERIOR INSULAR CORTEX

Temperature is a fundamental sensory modality that shapes our perception of the local somatosensory environment. The posterior insular cortex (pIC) is a principle cortical region involved in processing thermal information. Our previous calcium imaging study has shown that layers 2/3 (L2/3) of pIC contain excitatory neurons with distinct tuning and temporal dynamics in response to cooling and warming stimuli (Vestergaard et al., 2023). Analysis of laminar-specific markers from the Allen Mouse Brain Connectivity Atlas indicates that the pIC contains six cortical layers; however, how thermal information is encoded across these layers remains unclear. To address this, we perform translaminar Neuropixels recordings in the mouse pIC during thermal stimulation of the forepaw. Preliminary data reveal short-latency, transient neuronal responses, at both the onset and offset of thermal stimuli. Here we investigate the thermal tuning, neuronal recruitment, amplitude encoding and response dynamics. Together, these findings will provide new insights into the cortical mechanisms of thermal information processing.