Integrated Calendar

A key goal of modern neuroscience is to understand the neural circuits and synaptic mechanisms underlying sensory perception. Here, I will discuss our efforts to characterise sensory processing in the mouse barrel cortex, a brain region known to process tactile information relating to the whiskers on the snout. Each whisker is individually represented in the primary somatosensory neocortex by an anatomical unit termed a ‘barrel’. The barrels are arranged in a stereotypical map, which allows recordings and manipulations to be targeted with remarkable precision. In this cortical region it may therefore be feasible to gain a quantitative understanding of neocortical function. We have begun experiments towards this goal using whole-cell recordings, voltage-sensitive dye imaging, viral manipulations, optogenetics and two-photon microscopy. Through combining these techniques with behavioral training, our experiments provide new insight into sensory perception at the level of individual neurons and their synaptic connections.

Liron Barak
The Higgs Boson - a first of its kind?
Sagi Ben-Ami
Explosive Transients: New Results, New Instrumentation
Guy Gur-Ari
Nailing down large field inflation in string theory is hard
Hadas Soifer
Attosecond electron interferometry in molecules