A major challenge of sensory systems
neuroscience is to quantify brain activity underlying
perceptual experiences. The rat whisker system accomplishes
complex transformations of sensory information in a fast and
reliable manner and is therefore an ideal candidate to
provide knowledge about efficient coding mechanisms. Rats
have a set of 30-some long whiskers on each side of the
snout. In the somatosensory cortex, the whisker area - also
known as barrel cortex - is arranged as a topographic map
...