Cortico-thalamic interactions in response to whisker stimulation in a computer model of the rat barrel system

Recent evidence from multi-unit recording experiments in awake rats has sug gested that there may be complex, nonlinear interactions between the cortex and thalamus. In order to further study the possible role of the thalamus in cortical sensory processing, we have developed a computational model of the coritco-thalamic barrel region. In the model, single whisker stimulatio n can produce long latency responses in thalamic cells due to feedback from the cortex. Stimulus movement across the receptor surface, in the model, s hows the ability of the thalamus to produce "priming" effects in the cortex or "memory" effects depending on the frequency of the stimulation. (C) 199 9 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.