1. Introduction

Alexander Groh and Patrik Krieger

Part I: Whisker System in Mammals

2. Comparative Studies of Somatosensory Systems and Active Sensing

Kenneth C. Catania and Elizabeth H. Catania

Part II: Building Blocks of the Whisker System

3. The Whisker Thalamus

Manuel Castro-Alamancos

4. Synaptic Microcircuits in the Barrel Cortex

Dirk Feldmeyer, Gabriele Radnikow, and Quanxiao Qi

5. Imaging the Cortical Representation of Active Sensing in the Vibrissa System

Fritjof Helmchen and Jerry L. Chen

6. The Rodent Vibrissal System as a Model to Study Motor Cortex Function

Cornelius Schwarz and Shubhodeep Chakrabarti

7. The Central Pattern Generator for Rhythmic Whisking

David Kleinfeld, Martin Deschênes, and Jeffrey D. Moore

Part III: Computations of the Whisker System

8. Functional principles of Whisker-mediated Touch Perception

Miguel Maravall and Mathew E. Diamond

9. Location Coding by the Whisking System

Tess Baker Oram, Eldad Assa, Per Magne Knutsen, and Ehud Ahissar

10. The Robot Vibrissal System: Understanding Mammalian Sensorimotor Co-ordination through Biomimetics

Tony J. Prescott, Ben Mitchinson, Nathan Lepora, Stuard P. Wilson, Sean R. Anderson, John Porill, Paul Dean, Charles Fox, Martin J. Pearson, J. Charles Sullivan, and A. G. Pipe

Part IV: Development of the Whisker System

11. Impact of Monoaminergic Neuromodulators on the Development of Sensorimotor Circuits

Dirk Schubert, Nael

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.