Effects of systemically administered cocaine on sensory responses to peri-threshold vibrissae stimulation: individual cells, ensemble activity, and animal behaviour.

Previous studies have shown that systemic administration of cocaine transiently alters stimulus-evoked responses of ventral posteromedial (VPM) thalamic neurons. Results from these single-unit electrophysiological studies revealed that cocaine was equally likely to augment or attenuate the magnitude of sensory evoked responses following threshold level stimulation of peripheral receptive fields. In an attempt to clarify the impact of cocaine administration on sensory signal processing, we examined the drug's effects on responses of individual neurons and ensembles of VPM thalamic neurons to sensory stimuli, and performance of subjects in a sensory detection behavioural task.