Functional and Anatomical Investigation of Sensory Processing in the Rodent Somatosensory Cortex

Alejandro Ramirez

Of all sensory cortical areas, barrel cortex is among the best understood in terms of circuitry, yet least understood in terms of sensory function. Because sensory cortical areas have stereotyped anatomies, understanding computations in one sensory area may inform us of computations being performed by other sensory areas or sensory microcircuits all over the brain. Functional studies of barrel cortex are therefore important for marrying our immense and increasing knowledge of the cortical circuitry with the computations being performed in a cortical microcircuit. This thesis is an investigation of barrel cortex function as it pertains to 1) site specific sensory evoked plasticity in cortical microcircuit and 2) sensory receptive fields of the different cortical lamina in S1. The brain's capacity to rewire is thought to diminish with age. It is widely believed that development...