It is therefore of key importance to understand

how sensory information is further processed in areas downstream of an individual barrel column. Voltage-sensitive dye imaging can be used to resolve the spatiotemporal dynamics of membrane potential changes in the supragranular layers with millisecond temporal resolution and subcolumnar spatial resolution (Grinvald & Hildesheim, 2004). The earliest cortical response to a single whisker deflection arises in the related barrel column in the contralateral hemisphere. If the right C2 whisker is deflected then cortical sensory processing begins in the C2 barrel column of the left hemisphere with a latency of ∼10 ms (Fig. 2A). The earliest response is highly localized to a single cortical column. However, depending upon stimulus strength, brain states selleck chemicals and behavioral states (Petersen et al., 2003; Ferezou et al., 2006, 2007; Berger et al., 2007), the sensory response can spread across a large cortical region. If the stimulus

is delivered during a quiet state, a single rapid whisker deflection evokes a sensory response which spreads to neighboring cortical columns of S1 barrel cortex and secondary somatosensory (S2) cortex. In addition, ∼8 ms after the first cortical response, a second localized region of activity is observed in the primary motor cortex (M1), which also spreads into neighboring regions. A single brief whisker deflection can therefore result in two localized regions of activity from Ganetespib chemical structure which propagating waves of activity spread across the sensorimotor cortex. At later times, activity Dichloromethane dehalogenase also spreads into the cortex ipsilateral to the stimulated whisker, appearing initially in frontal cortex,

M1 and S2. Finally, but still within 100 ms of the initial whisker deflection, depolarization spreads with apparent bilateral symmetry to posterior parietal association cortex. A single whisker deflection therefore evokes a sensory response, which extends across a large part of the dorsal neocortex in a complex spatiotemporal pattern. There are, however, many possible pathways for signalling sensory information to the neocortex. The contribution of primary somatosensory barrel cortex to the whisker-evoked sensorimotor response was thus examined by the specific inactivation of the cognate barrel column (in this case the C2 barrel column) by injection of ionotropic glutamate receptor antagonists (Ferezou et al., 2007). Inactivation of the C2 barrel column almost completely blocked the entire sensorimotor response, while leaving the response to deflection of another nearby whisker (the E2 whisker) nearly unaltered (Fig. 2B and C; Ferezou et al., 2007). A significant part of the widespread sensory response evoked by a single C2 whisker deflection is therefore driven by activity in the C2 barrel column.