Automatic detection of layer activation order in information processing pathways of rat barrel cortex under mechanical whisker stimulation

Abstract

Whisking is the natural way by which rodents explore the environment. During whisking, microcircuits in the corresponding barrel columns get activated to segregate and integrate the tactile information through the information processing pathway. The local field potentials (LFPs) recorded from the barrel columns provide important information about this pathway. Different layers of the cortex get activated during this information processing, thus having precise information about the order of layer activation is desired. This work proposes an automated, computationally efficient and easy to implement method to determine the cortical layer activation for the signals recorded from barrel cortex of anesthetized rats upon mechanical whisker stimulation.