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For studying the neural basis of perception and behavior,
it would be ideal to directly monitor sensory-evoked
excitation streams within neural circuits, at sub-cellular and
millisecond resolution. To do so, reverse engineering
approaches of reconstructing circuit anatomy and synaptic
wiring have been suggested. The resulting anatomically
realistic models may then allow for computer simulations
(in silico experiments) of circuit function. A natural starting
point for reconstructing neural circuits is a cortical column,
which is thought to be an elementary functional unit of
sensory cortices. In the vibrissal area of rodent somatosensory
cortex, a cytoarchitectonic equivalent, designated
as a ‘barrel column’, has been described. By reconstructing
the 3D geometry of almost 1,000 barrel columns, we show
that the somatotopic layout of the vibrissal cortex is highly
preserved across animals. This allows generating a standard
cortex and registering neuron morphologies, obtained
from different experiments, to their ‘true’ location.
Marking a crucial step towards reverse engineering of
cortical circuits, the present study will allow estimating
synaptic connectivity within an entire cortical area by
structural overlap of registered axons and dendrites.
