Structured networks support sparse traveling waves in rodent somatosensory cortex

Neurons responding to different whiskers are spatially intermixed in the superficial layer 2/3 (L2/3) of the rodent barrel cortex, where a single whisker deflection activates a sparse, distributed neuronal population that spans multiple cortical columns. How the superficial layer of the rodent barrel cortex is organized to support such distributed sensory representations is not clear. In a computer model, we tested the hypothesis that sensory representations in L2/3 of the rodent barrel cortex are formed by activity propagation horizontally within L2/3 from a site of initial activation. The model explained the observed properties of L2/3 neurons, including the low average response probability in the majority of responding L2/3 neurons, and the existence of a small subset of reliably responding L2/3 neurons. Sparsely propagating traveling waves similar to those observed in L2/3 of the rodent barrel cortex occurred in the model only when a subnetwork of strongly connected neurons was immersed in a much larger network of weakly connected neurons.