Fig 1. Ongoing population spiking activity and response to whisker stimulation.

(a) Simultaneously recorded two-dimensional motion of two whiskers during an air puff stimulus. (b) Speed of dominant whisker during recording shown in (c). (c) Multi-unit activity recorded from 32 electrodes in barrel cortex of an anesthetized rat. Ongoing activity (orange box), recorded while whiskers are stationary, was used to assess the cortical state. Population spike count was compared to average whisker speed during the first 100 ms after stimulus onset (red) to assess sensory dynamic range.