Communication between cortical areas contributes importantly to sensory perception and cognition.On the millisecond time scale, information is signaled from one brain area to another by action potentials propagating across long-range axonal arborizations.Here, we develop and test methodology for imaging and annotating the brain-wide Pillow Protector axonal arborizations of individual excitatory layer 2/3 neurons in mouse barrel cortex through single-cell electroporation and two-photon serial section tomography followed by registration to a digital brain atlas.
Each neuron had an extensive local axon within the barrel cortex.In addition, individual neurons innervated subsets of secondary somatosensory cortex; primary somatosensory cortex for upper limb, trunk, and lower limb; primary and secondary motor cortex; visual and auditory cortical regions; dorsolateral striatum; and various fiber bundles.In the future, it will be important to assess if the diversity of axonal projections across individual layer 2/3 mouse barrel cortex neurons is accompanied by functional differences in Youth Western Saddles their activity patterns.