Barrel cortex function

TL;DR: This work reveals sparse and spatially intermingled representations of multiple tactile features in mice expressing GCaMP6s and nuclear red fluorescent proteins during performance of a single whisker object localization task and an encoding model related activity to behavioral variables.

TL;DR: Early spontaneous activity patterns control the formation of developing networks in sensory cortices, and disturbances of these activity patterns may lead to long-lasting neuronal deficits.

TL;DR: The potential for the use of known critical and sensitive periods during vertebrate development to investigate and advance the understanding of the neural bases underlying impairments in these developmental disorders of the nervous system is highlighted.

TL;DR: Making whole-cell recordings in primary somatosensory barrel cortex of behaving mice shows that S1 neurons projecting to primary motor cortex and those projecting to secondary somatoensory cortex have distinct intrinsic membrane properties and exhibit markedly different membrane potential dynamics during behavior.

TL;DR: It is proposed that the multiple replay of sensory input in thalamocortical circuits during EGOs allows thalamic and cortical neurons to be organized into vertical topographic functional units before the development of horizontal binding in adult brain.

TL;DR: It is shown that columnar and septal projection patterns are maintained throughout most of the cortical depth with a lower degree of separation in infragranular layers, where TC axons form bands along rows.

TL;DR: It is shown that during a brief developmental period the cortical network switches from a subplate-driven, gap-junction-coupled syncytium to a synaptic network acting through NMDA receptors to generate synchronized oscillatory activity, which may function as an early functional template for the development of the cortical columnar architecture.

TL;DR: This review attempts to summarize recent advances in the study of individual microcircuits and their functional relevance within the framework of a cortical column, with emphasis on excitatory signal flow.