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Mathew Diamond
Cognitive Neuroscience Sector, SISSA, Italy
Wednesday 28 March 2007, 16:00
Seminar Room B10 (Basement)
Alexandra House, 17 Queen Square, London, WC1N 3AR
Decoding touch from spike trains in the rat whisker system
Rats and mice have refined sensory capacities originating in the tactile hairs
-- the whiskers -- of the snout. This work is aimed at understanding the nature of the cortical signals that allow them to make texture discriminations. We have recorded spike trains in anesthetized animals receiving texture-like stimuli, and subsequently from awake animals while they actively carry out sensory discriminations. Results from the two types of experiment converge to give a clear framework for what the rat "reads" in order to take a decision.