Topic: whisker movements

Neural responses are often highly heterogeneous non-linear functions of multiple task variables, a signature of a high-dimensional geometry of the neural representations. We studied the representational geometry in the somatosensory cortex of mice trained to report the curvature of objects using their whiskers. High-speed videos of the whisker movements revealed that the task can be solved by linearly integrating multiple whisker contacts over time. However, the neural activity in somatosensory cortex reflects a process of non-linear integration of spatio-temporal features of the sensory input

Rapid eye movement sleep (REM) is often considered as a homogeneous state of sleep, defined by a striking resemblance of its electroencephalogram (EEG) to the one observed in wakefulness. The occurrence of transient events in REM, such as limb twitches or facial and rapid eye movements, supports the view of a paradoxical state of sleep. Here, we investigated the local activity of the primary somatosensory or barrel cortex (S1) in naturally sleeping head-fixed male mice during REM. Through local field potential (LFP) recordings, we uncovered local appearances of spindle waves in the barrel cort