The rat whisker system: from sensory coding to behavioural decision making

Rats use their whiskers to explore the environment around them. Sensory signals arising in one whisker are channelled through a population of neurons and can be sampled by electrodes at different stages of the sensory system. The rat whisker-barrel system is thus well suited to examining neural coding issues because of its functional efficiency and its elegant structural organisation.

Dr Arabzadeh will present neuronal data recorded in anaesthetised and awake behaving rats, and investigate the relationship between the response of cortical neurons and the behaviour of rats in various behavioural paradigms.