The Stanley Lab secured a 2 year R21 Grant from the NIH/NINDS entitled “Interhemispheric interactions underlying bilateral somatosensation”.  In this work, we will elucidate the neocortical laminar and cellular basis of interhemispheric computations underlying bilateral tactile interactions, and reveal their role in bilateral stimulus encoding and perception. We will investigate bilateral tactile interactions in the whisker system of the mouse, using a unique combination of extracellular recordings, optogenetic identification and targeted chemogenetic manipulations of specific interhemispheric projections, and a signal detection theory and decoding analytic framework, all during active bilateral somatosensation. This work is being led by Dr. Aurélie Pala, a senior postdoctoral researcher in the lab. Great work, Aurélie!