Primary motor cortex afferents supra-linearly amplify the responses and sharpen angular tuning of neurons in the S1 barrel cortex.

A tactile virtual reality system reveals the neural codes in the barrel cortex that underlie wall-tracking in mice.

The somatosensory cortex doesn't integrate mixed bilateral inputs, as partially uncrossing projections from the whiskers duplicates their representation by segregating lateralized inputs from each side of the head.

Neurons within rat somatosensory cortex are selective to texture and are spatially organized according to their texture preference.

Two distinct thalamocortical pathways were found to provide differential excitatory synaptic input to distinct cell-types across layers of mouse primary somatosensory barrel cortex.

RORβ is a key layer 4 transcription factor orchestrating a critical juncture in barrel development where terminal differentiation and activity inputs are integrated to drive cellular organization in the cortex.

A learning-induced, motor-related, projection-specific signal from S1 to S2 accompanies reward-based-learning of a goal-directed sensorimotor transformation of whisker sensation into licking motor output.

The structural morphology of astrocyte processes is constrained by functional boundaries in the mouse, rat and human cortex.

Repression of the G protein-coupled chemokine receptor CCR5 enhances MAPK/CREB signaling, long-term potentiation, somatosensory cortical plasticity, and learning and memory, while CCR5 over-activation by viral proteins may contribute to HIV-associated cognitive deficits.

The tapered, conical shape of rodent whiskers is essential for sensor mobility in constrained spaces and feature extraction from textured surfaces.