Dissecting the Dynamics of Corticothalamic Feedback

The thalamus and neocortex are intimately interconnected via a reciprocal arrangement of feedforward and feedback projections. In this issue of Neuron, Crandall et al. (2015) provide key insight into the functional dynamics of feedback projections and reveal the cellular and circuit mechanisms that underlie a rate-dependent switch in the net influence, suppression versus excitation, that cortex can exert on thalamic relay cells