Paper available: Processing in Layer 4 of the Neocortical Circuit

[Ken Miller]

The following review paper is available from
http://www.keck.ucsf.edu/~ken (click on 'publications'):

Miller, K.D., D.J. Simons and D.J. Pinto (2001).  ``Processing in
Layer 4 of the Neocortical Circuit: New Insights From Visual and
Somatosensory Cortex''.  Current Opinion in Neurobiology 11, 488-497.

Summary:
Recent experimental and theoretical results in cat primary visual
cortex (V1) and in the whisker-barrel fields of rodent primary
somatosensory cortex (S1) suggest common organizing principles for
layer 4, the primary recipient of sensory input from thalamus.
Response tuning of layer 4 cells is largely determined by a local
interplay of feedforward excitation (from thalamus) and feedforward
inhibition (from layer 4 inhibitory interneurons driven by thalamus).
Feedforward inhibition dominates excitation, inherits its tuning from
the thalamic input, and sharpens the tuning of excitatory cells.
Recurrent excitation enhances responses to effective stimuli.  We
review results leading to these common pictures, and also highlight
remaining differences between the two systems.

Ken
 
        Kenneth D. Miller               telephone: (415) 476-8217
	Associate Professor		fax: (415) 476-4929
        Dept. of Physiology, UCSF	internet: ken at phy.ucsf.edu
        513 Parnassus			www: http://www.keck.ucsf.edu/~ken
        San Francisco, CA 94143-0444