Barrel cortex

Interhemispheric correlations are mediated by the corpus callosum, an extensive fiber bundle connecting the cortical hemispheres. The authors show that interhemispheric correlations between the somatosensory cortices of awake mice are reduced during whisking as a result of lower callosal activity.

Definitive evidence for functional remapping after stroke remains lacking. Here, the authors performed in vivo intrinsic signal imaging and two-photon calcium imaging of sensory-evoked responses before and after photothrombotic stroke and found no evidence of remapping of lost functionalities to new circuits in peri-infarct cortex.

Electrophysiology combined with correlated light and electron microscopy confirms the long-standing assumption that the size of a synapse is proportional to its strength, and reveals that neocortical synapses may have greater computational capacity than thought.

Sensory neuronal circuits adapt during maturation when animals start to actively interact with the external world. The authors reveal structural and functional rearrangements of the input cortical interneurons receive around the time the animals start active sensation.

Misa Shimuta et al. evaluate the responses of cerebellar granule and Purkinje cells to tactile lip stimulation accompanied by optogenetic silencing of the rodent primary somatosensory cortex (S1). They show that peripheral sensory information converges with S1 signals onto the same granule cell, and that this integration affects the output of both granule and Purkinje cells.