Three recently published papers provide data for building models of whisker related thalamocortical input to excitatory neurons in a cortical column of rat primary somatosensory cortex. All three papers were published in the October 2010 issue of Cerebral Cortex.
The first article in the series “Dimensions of a projection column and architecture of VPM- and POm-axons in rat vibrissal cortex” describes the spatial distribution and anatomical dimensions of thalamocortical input to the primary somatosensory cortex.
The second article in the series “Number and Laminar Distribution of Neurons in a Thalamocortical Projection Column of Rat Vibrissal Cortex” presents the dimensions of a whisker related thalamocortical projection onto rat primary somatosensory cortex. In addition, the paper provides estimates of the number of excitatory and inhibitory found within the volume of the thalamocortical projection and within each of the layers of the cerebral cortex. Finally, the authors provide an estimate of the number of action potentials elicited in this volume of cortex during the first 50 ms and 100 ms after stimulating a whisker.
In the third and final article in the series “Cell Type–Specific Thalamic Innervation in a Column of Rat Vibrissal Cortex” the authors provide quantitative estimates of the amount of synaptic input from specific thalamocortical projections onto specific excitatory neuron types in the rat primary somatosensory cortex.
These data will be very useful for those building computer models of the whisker related rat thalamicortical projections and primary somatosensory cortex.