Quantification of firing rate adaptation and comparison across the whisker pathway.

<p>A. The firing rate trajectory of an example unit over one high-low variance cycle, normalized as a z-score. Schematic represents computation of adaptation indices (AIs) from z-score rates at different times in cycle (e.g., <i>z_init,hi</i>). <i>init</i> signifies rates collected in the first two 100-ms bins within an epoch; <i>ss</i> the final five bins within the epoch, corresponding to the steady-state response. B. AI for each TRG unit and each VPM unit in our database. These data are compared to AIs of S1 units previously reported in <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0082418#pone.0082418-Maravall2" target="_blank">[20]</a>. Adaptation was more diverse in the VPM than in TRG, but was not significantly higher on average; adaptation did increase on average in S1.