Activity in the barrel cortex during active behavior and sleep.

The rate at which neurons fire has wide-reaching implications for the coding schemes used by neural systems. Despite the extensive use of the barrel cortex as a model system, relatively few studies have examined the rate of sensory activity in single neurons in freely moving animals. We examined the activity of barrel cortex neurons in behaving animals during sensory cue interaction, during non-stimulus-related activity, during various states of sleep, and during the administration of isoflurane.