FOR 1341: Barrel Cortex Function
Final Report Abstract
The neocortical representation of the whiskers in the primary somatosensory cortex of rodents, the so-called barrel cortex, represents an excellent model to study sensory processing in a cortical network and to correlate whisker-related behaviour with neuronal activity in a well-defined cortical map. Using modern and highly innovative in vitro and in vivo techniques, the members of the Swiss-German Research Unit "Barrel Cortex Function" (BaCoFun) obtained novel insights into the development, structure, function and neuronal processing of the whisker-to-barrel cortex pathway. Single cell patch-clamp recordings and optogenetic manipulations in behaving animals followed by detailed 3D single cell reconstructions, detailed structure-function analyses of defined cortical cell populations and their role in cortical processing, chronic large scale optical recording with high spatial and temporal resolution, in vivo multi-electrode recordings simultaneously in cortical and thalamic regions and electrophysiological recordings in behaving rodents performing complex behavioural tasks gave novel insights into our models of cortical and subcortical processing of sensory information. The work and cooperations within BaCoFun resulted during the second funding period in 43 publications. In the whole 6-years funding period the consortium published 71 papers with 10x in Neuron, 4x Nature Neuroscience, 1x Nature, 2x other Nature journals, 2x Cell Reports, 11x Cerebral Cortex, 3x Journal of Neuroscience, and many other high ranking publications. In addition, the BaCoFun consortium published a review article in Progress in Neurobiology entitled "Barrel cortex function". Furthermore a Special Issue entitled "Barrel Cortex Function" to be published in Neuroscience in 2017 is currently planned with about 25 review articles from an international consortium. BaCoFun organized 5 international meetings. The 2016 international meeting in Amsterdam was attended by more than 160 participants. In summary, BaCoFun succeeded in forming tight bonds within an international consortium of young and established scientists, which goes far beyond the quantitative numbers of this report and which will result in further BaCoFun activities in the next years.
