The role of spike timing for thalamocortical processing.

Although the response properties of sensory neurons in the thalamus and cerebral cortex have been studied for decades, relatively few studies have examined how sensory information is processed at thalamocortical synapses. Recent studies now show that the strength of thalamocortical connections is very dynamic and spike timing plays an important role in determining whether action potentials will be transferred from thalamus to cortex.