Event Abstract Back to Event How dynamic is encoding? State-dependent feature-selectivity in thalamo-cortical circuits of the rat whisker system Cornelius Schwarz1* and Garrett B. Stanley2 1 Eberhard Karls University, Werner Reichardt Centre for Integrative Neuroscience, Germany 2 Georgia Tech, Coulter Dept. of Biomedical Engineering, United States The dynamic association of computations performed by almost identical repetitive microcircuits across neocortex is the basis for the generation of highly flexible ‘states’ that give rise to vastly different behaviors. The key to reaching an understanding of cortical processing, therefore, is to study how it adapts signal processing to these different states. It is generally believed that the relevant mechanism for adaptive processing lies in interactions of thalamo-cortical loops, and in view of the repetitive outlay across neocortex may generalize across states. Therefore, our project compares thalamo-cortical coding in bottom-up (sensory driven), top-down (cognitive), and vigilance related states. The rat tactile whisker system is a model system that offers a broad knowledge base of connectivity and neuronal processing and a superior accessibility of thalamo-cortical representations. The specific aims of our project are to 1) assess feature selectivity of thalamic and cortical neurons in range of states using encoding models, based on white noise analysis, and 2) study behavioral tasks with different perceptual requirements to assess whether behavioral discriminability is correlated with (and thus possibly caused by) the ability to dynamically adjust feature selectivity. Thus far, we have developed some of the computational tools based on spike-triggered analysis, using simulation and data from the anesthetized rat. In parallel, we have developed the behavioral framework necessary to integrate the work across the two laboratories. We will present preliminary work on both the acute and behavioral sides of the project. Acknowledgements This work is supported by CRCNS 01GQ1113. Keywords: Thalamus, Cortex, whisker system, barrel cortex, coding models, state dependency, Sensory coding Conference: Bernstein Conference 2012, Munich, Germany, 12 Sep - 14 Sep, 2012. Presentation Type: Poster Topic: Neural encoding and decoding Citation: Schwarz C and Stanley GB (2012). How dynamic is encoding? State-dependent feature-selectivity in thalamo-cortical circuits of the rat whisker system. Front. Comput. Neurosci. Conference Abstract: Bernstein Conference 2012. doi: 10.3389/conf.fncom.2012.55.00043 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 06 Jul 2012; Published Online: 12 Sep 2012. * Correspondence: Prof. Cornelius Schwarz, Eberhard Karls University, Werner Reichardt Centre for Integrative Neuroscience, Tübingen, 72076, Germany, cornelius.schwarz@uni-tuebingen.de Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Cornelius Schwarz Garrett B Stanley Google Cornelius Schwarz Garrett B Stanley Google Scholar Cornelius Schwarz Garrett B Stanley PubMed Cornelius Schwarz Garrett B Stanley Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.