Search research articles

ABOUT JoVE

Overview Leadership Blog JoVE Help Center

AUTHORS

Publishing Process Editorial Board Scope & Policies Peer Review FAQ Submit

LIBRARIANS

Testimonials Subscriptions Access Resources Library Advisory Board FAQ

RESEARCH

JoVE Journal Methods Collections JoVE Encyclopedia of Experiments Archive

EDUCATION

JoVE Core JoVE Business JoVE Science Education JoVE Lab Manual Faculty Resource Center Faculty Site

Terms & Conditions of Use

Related Concept Videos

Somatosensation

Somatosensation

The somatosensory system relays sensory information from the skin, mucous membranes, limbs, and joints. Somatosensation is more familiarly known as the sense of touch. A typical somatosensory pathway includes three types of long neurons: primary, secondary, and tertiary. Primary neurons have cell bodies located near the spinal cord in groups of neurons called dorsal root ganglia. The sensory neurons of ganglia innervate designated areas of skin called dermatomes.

Integration of Synaptic Events

Integration of Synaptic Events

Synaptic integration mainly includes the summation of graded potentials. Graded potentials, regardless of their type, cause subtle alterations in membrane voltage, resulting in either depolarization or hyperpolarization. These incremental changes, when combined or summed, can propel the neuron toward its threshold. Consider, for example, a membrane experiencing a +15 mV shift, causing it to depolarize from -70 mV to -55 mV. In this scenario, graded potentials govern the membrane's ability to...

Tactile and Chemical Senses

Tactile and Chemical Senses

Tactile senses encompass touch, temperature, and pain, each mediated by specific receptors. Touch receptors detect mechanical energy or pressure against the skin. Sensory fibers from these receptors enter the spinal cord and relay information to the brain stem. Here, most fibers cross over to the opposite side of the brain. The touch information then moves to the thalamus, which projects a map of the body's surface onto the somatosensory areas of the parietal lobes in the cerebral cortex. This...

Synaptic Signaling

Synaptic Signaling

Neurons communicate at synapses, or junctions, to excite or inhibit the activity of other neurons or target cells, such as muscles. Synapses may be chemical or electrical.

Synaptic Signaling

Synaptic Signaling

Neurons communicate at synapses, or junctions, to excite or inhibit the activity of other neurons or target cells, such as muscles. Synapses may be chemical or electrical.
Most synapses are chemical, meaning an electrical impulse or action potential spurs the release of chemical messengers called neurotransmitters. The neuron sending the signal is called the presynaptic neuron, and the neuron receiving the signal is the postsynaptic neuron.
The presynaptic neuron fires an action potential that...

The Role of Ion Channels in Neuronal Computation

The Role of Ion Channels in Neuronal Computation

A postsynaptic neuron usually receives numerous impulses from several other presynaptic neurons. The axon hillock of the postsynaptic neuron integrates all these signals and determines the likelihood of firing an action potential.
Sometimes a single EPSP is strong enough to induce an action potential in the postsynaptic neuron. However, multiple presynaptic inputs must often create EPSPs around the same time for the postsynaptic neuron to be sufficiently depolarized to fire an action potential.

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by

Same author

Retrosplenial cortex enables context-dependent goal-directed sensorimotor transformation.

eLife·2026

Same author

Contextual gating of whisker-evoked responses by frontal cortex supports flexible decision making.

Nature communications·2026

Same author

Somatosensory input drives membrane potential dynamics in motor cortex during voluntary limb movement.

PLoS biology·2026

Same author

Cortical circuits for whisker sensory perception-From barrel columns to brain-wide interactions.

Current opinion in neurobiology·2026

Same author

A population approach to cortical GABAergic interneuron function.

Neuron·2026

Same author

Redefining borders in the sensorimotor cortex.

eLife·2026

Same journal

Fast-conducting mechanonociceptors uniquely engage reflexive and affective pain circuitry to drive protective responses.

Neuron·2026

Same journal

Sparse component analysis: A method that uncovers separable computations within neural population activity.

Neuron·2026

Same journal

Spatiomolecular mapping reveals anatomical organization of heterogeneous cell types in the human nucleus accumbens.

Neuron·2026

Same journal

TGF-β1-induced endothelial transcytosis drives blood-brain barrier leakage during aging.

Neuron·2026

Same journal

Image space opens up for visual neuroscience.

Neuron·2026

Same journal

Septal GLP-1 receptors control alcohol taking and seeking.

Neuron·2026

See all related articles

Search research articles

Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jun 3, 2026

Intravital Two-Photon Imaging of Touch Sensory Axon Morphology in Mouse Skin

Intravital Two-Photon Imaging of Touch Sensory Axon Morphology in Mouse Skin

Published on: December 30, 2025

Synaptic mechanisms underlying sparse coding of active touch.

Sylvain Crochet¹, James F A Poulet, Yves Kremer

¹Laboratory of Sensory Processing, Brain Mind Institute, Faculty of Life Sciences, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland.

|March 26, 2011

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Active touch sensing in mice relies on sparse neural firing. Specific synaptic mechanisms in the somatosensory cortex ensure only a few neurons signal each whisker touch, enabling robust sensory coding.

More Related Videos

Tactile Semiautomatic Passive-Finger Angle Stimulator (TSPAS)

Tactile Semiautomatic Passive-Finger Angle Stimulator (TSPAS)

Published on: July 30, 2020

A Simple Stimulatory Device for Evoking Point-like Tactile Stimuli: A Searchlight for LFP to Spike Transitions

A Simple Stimulatory Device for Evoking Point-like Tactile Stimuli: A Searchlight for LFP to Spike Transitions

Published on: March 25, 2014

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Jun 3, 2026

Intravital Two-Photon Imaging of Touch Sensory Axon Morphology in Mouse Skin

Intravital Two-Photon Imaging of Touch Sensory Axon Morphology in Mouse Skin

Published on: December 30, 2025

Tactile Semiautomatic Passive-Finger Angle Stimulator (TSPAS)

Tactile Semiautomatic Passive-Finger Angle Stimulator (TSPAS)

Published on: July 30, 2020

A Simple Stimulatory Device for Evoking Point-like Tactile Stimuli: A Searchlight for LFP to Spike Transitions

A Simple Stimulatory Device for Evoking Point-like Tactile Stimuli: A Searchlight for LFP to Spike Transitions

Published on: March 25, 2014

Area of Science:

Neuroscience
Sensory Processing
Computational Neuroscience

Background:

Understanding synaptic mechanisms in active sensory processing is crucial.
Neuronal circuit function during active sensation remains poorly understood.

Purpose of the Study:

Investigate synaptic mechanisms driving neuronal membrane potential dynamics during active whisker sensation.
Characterize how layer 2/3 pyramidal neurons in the somatosensory cortex process touch information.

Main Methods:

Whole-cell recordings from layer 2/3 pyramidal neurons in the primary somatosensory barrel cortex of behaving mice.
Analysis of synaptically driven membrane potential dynamics during active whisker sensation.
Dual whole-cell recordings to assess correlated neuronal activity.

Main Results:

Whisker contact evoked rapid depolarization in all recorded neurons.
Touch responses only triggered action potentials in approximately 10% of neurons, indicating sparse coding.
Cell-specific reversal potentials, hyperpolarized relative to action potential threshold, contributed to sparse firing.
Intercontact interval influenced postsynaptic potentials but not peak response amplitude.
Membrane potential dynamics during active touch were highly correlated between simultaneously recorded neurons.

Conclusions:

Sparse action potential firing within synchronized cortical microcircuits robustly signals active touch.
Synaptic mechanisms create a sparse coding strategy for efficient sensory information processing.