The state of the brain and body constantly varies on rapid and slow timescales. These variations contribute to the apparent noisiness of sensory responses at both the neural and the behavioral level. Recent investigations of rapid state changes in awake, behaving animals have provided insight into the mechanisms by which optimal sensory encoding and behavioral performance are achieved. Fluctuat...

Sensory signals are often caused by one’s own active movements. This raises a problem of discriminating between selfgenerated sensory signals and signals generated by the external world. Such discrimination is of general importance for robotic systems, where operational robustness is dependent on correct interpretation of sensory signals. Here we investigate this problem in the context of a whi...

Climbing fibers (CFs) are thought to contribute to cerebellar plasticity and learning by triggering a large influx of dendritic calcium in the postsynaptic Purkinje cell (PC) to signal the occurrence of an unexpected sensory event. However, CFs fire about once per second whether or not an event occurs, raising the question of how sensory-driven signals might be distinguished from a background o...

Primary sensory cortex discriminates incoming sensory information and generates multiple processing streams toward other cortical areas. However, the underlying cellular mechanisms remain unknown. Here, by making whole-cell recordings in primary somatosensory barrel cortex (S1) of behaving mice, we show that S1 neurons projecting to primary motor cortex (M1) and those projecting to secondary so...

A case of focal inferior limb sensory-motor status epilepticus as the only manifestation of a multiple sclerosis (MS) relapse is described. To obtain evidence of the relationship between the seizures, the cortical plaque and the left foot motor area, an EEG-fMRI co-registration study was undertaken demonstrating that seizure-related BOLD signal substantially overlapped with the inflammatory les...

In the sense of touch, it is the motion of the sensory receptors themselves that leads to an afferent signal-whether these receptors are in our fingertips sliding along a surface or a rat's whiskers palpating an object. Afferent signals can be correctly interpreted only if the sensory system receives information about the brain's own motor output. In this issue of Neuron, Urbain and Deschênes p...

The olfactory sensory receptor neuron (OSRN) is an important cellular component of the vertebrate olfactory system that are responsible for detection and discrimination of different type of chemical cues from the external environment [1]. The neural communication between the sensory receptor cells is generally mediated through vesicles [2]. The fine structural details of OSRN aim to unfold the ...

The trigeminal ganglion (TrG) is built of pseudounipolar neurons, their fibers and satellite cells. Neurons that are different in size have been visualized using electronmicroscopic method. It is particularly interesting that stored pigments are a result of age alterations. Pseudounipolar neurons in (TrG) are sensory cells and they receive nerve impulses from sensory nerve terminals. In conclus...

This paper describes a fast adaptive algorithm for noise cancellation using multi-sensory signal recordings of the same noisy source. It is shown that the performance of the new procedure for noise cancellation for multi-sensory signals is improved when compared to previously proposed methods. A short overview of the previously proposed methods is given. Optimality of the algorithm is discussed...