part of part of in taxon capable of part of capable of part of contributes to morphology of sensory perception of touch Rodentia somatosensory system primary somatosensory cortex barrel cortex The term primary somatosensory area, barrel field refers to one of 6 subdivisions of the primary somesthetic area of the cerebral cortex in the mouse (Dong-2004) and the rat (Swanson-2004). It is defined as dark-staining regions in Nissl and other types of stains of layer four of the somatosensory cortex of rodents where somatosensory inputs from the contralateral side of the body come in from the thalamus, in particular input from the whiskers. Each barrel ranges in size from 100-400 um in diameter. (modified from BrainInfo and Wikipedia) EMAPA:35163 BAMS:SSp-bfd MA:0002712 primary somatosensory area, barrel field barrel cortex barrel field of the primary somatosensory area BAMS:SS-bfd primary somatosensory cortex, barrel field barrel field NLX:81 whisker sensory area whisker barrels neuronames:2703 primary somatosensory area barrel field One of the discrete functional units of the somatosensory cortex that processes tactile information derived from the vibrissae. barrel field sensory area UBERON:0010415 MBA:329 functional part of brain