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Free keywords:
thalamocortical, intracortical, corticothalamic, whisker, barrel cortex, layers, cell types, canonical circuit, bistratified circuit, active dendrites
Abstract:
All areas of the cerebral cortex receive inputs from and project back to the thalamus. Thalamocortical axons project to all cortical layers, where they can form synaptic connections with diverse types of both excitatory and inhibitory neurons. Here, I will introduce some of the basic anatomical and physiological properties that characterize each of the ten major excitatory cell types of the cerebral cortex, and review how these cell type-specific properties shape the flow sensory-evoked thalamocortical inputs across cortical layers. Based on these considerations at cellular and cell type levels, I will discuss previous and current views of the cortical circuit architecture that underlies the processing and the transformation of thalamocortical input into corticothalamic output. This chapter thereby provides a starting framework for the subsequent chapters that focus more deeply on excitatory and inhibitory neurons and their firing properties during different behaviors, synaptic dynamics, dynamic receptive fields, and neuromodulation.
