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 ...
A major challenge of sensory systems neuroscience is to quantify brain activity underlying perceptual experiences. The...