Sensorimotor Integration in the Whisker System

Introduction.- Comparative Studies of Somatosensory Systems and Active Sensing.- The Whisker Thalamus.- Synaptic Microcircuits in the Barrel Cortex.- Imaging the Cortical Representation of Active Sensing in the Vibrissa System.- The Rodent Vibrissal System as a Model to Study Motor Cortex Function.- The Central Pattern Generator for Rhythmic Whisking.- Functional principles of Whisker-mediated Touch Perception.- Location Coding by the Whisking System.- The Robot Vibrissal System: Understanding Mammalian Sensorimotor Co-ordination through Biomimetrics.- Impact of Monoaminergic Neuromodulators on the Development of Sensorimotor Circuits.

Patrik Krieger received his Ph.D. from Karolinska Institutet and then worked as a postdoctoral fellow with Bert Sakmann at the Max Planck Institute, Heidelberg. He is currently Head of the Department of Systems Neuroscience at the Ruhr-University Bochum. His research spans over both sensory and motor systems aiming to provide an understanding of how both systems interact during sensory-guided behavior. This research is done using a combination of electrophysiology and behavioural experiments where the activity of genetically labeled cell types has been modified to reveal the cell type specific contributions to sensorimotor integration. Furthermore, his research includes studies on the impact of sensory deprivation and cortical plasticity on tactile information processing. In addition he works on developing analytical tools for quantitative analysis of neuroanatomy.

Alexander Groh received his Ph.D. from the University of Heidelberg and worked as a postdoctoral fellow with Bert Sakmann at the Technische Universität München. His research focuses on the thalamocortical system, which he studies to understand cognitive functions, in particular sensory and motor processing. He is specifically interested in cortical feedback connections to the thalamus, and their role in controlling the flow of information through thalamocortical circuits. After characterizing the synaptic physiology and adaptation of corticothalamic "driver" pathways in the rat whisker system, he applied cell-type specific approaches to characterize the impact of cortical feedback pathways on sensory processing the thalamocortical system. He currently develops methods to explore the functions of corticothalamic interactions in behavior.