# Functional, anatomical, and molecular dissection of mouse somatosensory cortex

> **NIH NIH F31** · BOSTON UNIVERSITY (CHARLES RIVER CAMPUS) · 2021 · $41,790

## Abstract

Project Summary/Abstract
The neocortex plays a critical role in complex cognitive tasks. At a mesoscopic level, similarities in the
organization of the neocortex across species suggests that cortical processing and circuit motifs are well-
preserved and stereotyped. This emphasizes the relevance and boosts motivation to study non-human
mammals in the hopes of understanding cortical processing in the human brain. This project aims to
investigate the roles of certain cell-types in neocortical circuitry. Specifically, the goal is to comprehensively
characterize the cellular components involved in a sensory-processing and learning task in the mouse
primary somatosensory cortex.
Neurons in the somatosensory cortex will be probed to uncover three characteristics: anatomical identity
based on their projection target, functional identity based on their activity patterns during a behavioral task,
and molecular identity based on their transcriptome. Anatomical identity of neurons in the somatosensory
cortex will be determined by retrograde labelling from target areas. Functional identity will be characterized
by in vivo two-photon calcium imaging of neuronal activity during whisker-guided decision making tasks.
Molecular identity will be visualized using ex vivo fluorescence in situ hybridization targeting mRNA
transcripts informative of molecular cell-type. Drawing parallels between these three characterizations will
result in comprehensive definitions of cells involved, with the expectation that homologies exist in the human
brain. These experiments will identify key cellular components involved in sensory-processing, decision
making, and learning, which will provide critical insight into how the brain performs complex computations.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10241912
- **Project number:** 5F31NS111896-03
- **Recipient organization:** BOSTON UNIVERSITY (CHARLES RIVER CAMPUS)
- **Principal Investigator:** Cameron James Condylis
- **Activity code:** F31 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $41,790
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2019-09-02 → 2022-01-25

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10241912

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10241912, Functional, anatomical, and molecular dissection of mouse somatosensory cortex (5F31NS111896-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10241912. Licensed CC0.

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