Figure 7. Predicted population place code for two-whisker timing.

The mean spike rate plotted against neuron location reveals the population response to various inter-whisker interval stimuli. The peak response decreases and is shifted across the horizontal extent of L2/3 by stimuli varying in interval from to interval. Thus distance-dependent delays in the projection from L4 to L2/3 barrel cortex, coupled with the geometry of the projection, represent a mechanism by which the relative timing of two-whisker stimuli can be encoded by the population activity in L2/3 barrel cortex, for inter-whisker intervals ranging to .