Analysis of sensory coding with complex stimuli

Most high-level sensory neurons have complex, nonlinear response properties; a comprehensive characterization of these properties remains a formidable challenge. Recent studies using complex sensory stimuli combined with linear and nonlinear analyses have provided new insights into the neuronal response properties in various sensory circuits.     

Phase-of-firing coding of natural visual stimuli in primary visual cortex

We investigated the hypothesis that neurons encode rich naturalistic stimuli in terms of their spike times relative to the phase of ongoing network fluctuations rather than only in terms of their spike count. We recorded local field potentials (LFPs) and multiunit spikes from the primary visual cortex of anaesthetized macaques while binocularly presenting a color movie. We found that both the spike counts and the low-frequency LFP phase were reliably modulated by the movie and thus conveyed information about it. Moreover, movie periods eliciting higher firing rates also elicited a higher reliability of LFP phase across trials. To establish whether the LFP phase at which spikes were emitted conveyed visual information that could not be extracted by spike rates alone, we compared the Shannon information about the movie carried by spike counts to that carried by the phase of firing. We found that at low LFP frequencies, the phase of firing conveyed 54% additional information beyond that conveyed by spike counts. The extra information available in the phase of firing was crucial for the disambiguation between stimuli eliciting high spike rates of similar magnitude. Thus, phase coding may allow primary cortical neurons to represent several effective stimuli in an easily decodable format.     

Neural coding of natural stimuli: information at sub-millisecond resolution

Sensory information about the outside world is encoded by neurons in sequences of discrete, identical pulses termed action potentials or spikes. There is persistent controversy about the extent to which the precise timing of these spikes is relevant to the function of the brain. We revisit this issue, using the motion-sensitive neurons of the fly visual system as a test case. Our experimental methods allow us to deliver more nearly natural visual stimuli, comparable to those which flies encounter in free, acrobatic flight. New mathematical methods allow us to draw more reliable conclusions about the information content of neural responses even when the set of possible responses is very large. We find that significant amounts of visual information are represented by details of the spike train at millisecond and sub-millisecond precision, even though the sensory input has a correlation time of ~55 ms; different patterns of spike timing represent distinct motion trajectories, and the absolute timing of spikes points to particular features of these trajectories with high precision. Finally, the efficiency of our entropy estimator makes it possible to uncover features of neural coding relevant for natural visual stimuli: first, the system's information transmission rate varies with natural fluctuations in light intensity, resulting from varying cloud cover, such that marginal increases in information rate thus occur even when the individual photoreceptors are counting on the order of one million photons per second. Secondly, we see that the system exploits the relatively slow dynamics of the stimulus to remove coding redundancy and so generate a more efficient neural code.     

The use of natural language to communicate the perception of vibrotactile stimuli

This study explores the subjective use of adjectives to verbally communicate vibrotactile stimulation across multiple frequencies. In total, nine different vibrotactile stimulus frequencies (10–300?Hz) were utilized, and subjective evaluation methods, which involved adjectives, were used to assess the sensory representations of the participants (18 healthy male participants; mean age, 22.9 years; standard deviation, 3.5). Sensory terms such as ‘slow,’ ‘protruding,’ and ‘thick’ were used as representative expressions to describe low-frequency (10–100?Hz) vibrotactile stimulations, while ‘fast,’ ‘shallow,’ and ‘tickly’ were used to describe high-frequency (225–300?Hz) vibrotactile stimulations. At the frequencies of 150 and 200?Hz, no characteristic word was found because there was no difference in subjective evaluation scores from other low or high frequencies. The results suggest that vibrotactile stimulation at different frequencies induce diverse sensory representations, owing to not only the motion and shape of the stimuli but also the subjective responses of the perceivers. The results of this study could be utilized in developing affective haptic devices in the future.     

Biological and bionic hands: natural neural coding and artificial perception

The first decade and a half of the twenty-first century brought about two major innovations in neuroprosthetics: the development of anthropomorphic robotic limbs that replicate much of the function of a native human arm and the refinement of algorithms that decode intended movements from brain activity. However, skilled manipulation of objects requires somatosensory feedback, for which vision is a poor substitute. For upper-limb neuroprostheses to be clinically viable, they must therefore provide for the restoration of touch and proprioception. In this review, I discuss efforts to elicit meaningful tactile sensations through stimulation of neurons in somatosensory cortex. I focus on biomimetic approaches to sensory restoration, which leverage our current understanding about how information about grasped objects is encoded in the brain of intact individuals. I argue that not only can sensory neuroscience inform the development of sensory neuroprostheses, but also that the converse is true: stimulating the brain offers an exceptional opportunity to causally interrogate neural circuits and test hypotheses about natural neural coding.     

A neural coding model for sensory intensity discrimination,to be applied to gustation

Summary This paper presents a model of the neural coding and discrimination of sensory intensity. The model consists of five stages: (1) the coding of stimulus intensity in peripheral receptors or neurons by a rate code. The relevance of comparing different analysis intervals for the response is pointed out; (2) neural processing, according to either labeled-line or across-fiber pattern theory. In addition, two possible non-linearities in the processing are considered: a threshold mechanism, and contrast enhancement by reciprocal inhibition; (3) a neural discriminator, based on signal-detection theory; (4) a memory stage; (5) an effector organ providing a behavioral output. Emphasis is put on stages 2 and 3.The model produces predictions of the differential threshold, which should be directly testable in a behavioral two-alternative forced-choice paradigm. The model will be applied to gustatory intensity discrimination in rat in a subsequent study (Maes and Erickson 1984). The Discussion pays attention to the relative contributions of peripheral and central noise sources. It also compares the present model with Beidler's (1958) approach through just noticeable differences (JND's). The model presented here seems more adequate in providing an understanding of sensory information processing.Abbreviations AFP across fiber pattern - DA discrimination acuity - DT differential threshold - JND just noticeable difference - LL labeled line - NTS nucleus tractus solitarius     

Self-organizing maps for visual feature representation based on natural binocular stimuli

We model the stimulus-induced development of the topography of the primary visual cortex. The analysis uses a self-organizing Kohonen model based on high-dimensional coding. It allows us to obtain an arbitrary number of feature maps by defining different operators. Using natural binocular stimuli, we concentrate on discussing the orientation, ocular dominance, and disparity maps. We obtain orientation and ocular dominance maps that agree with essential aspects of biological findings. In contrast to orientation and ocular dominance, not much is known about the cortical representation of disparity. As a result of numerical simulations, we predict substructures of orientation and ocular dominance maps that correspond to disparity maps. In regions of constant orientation, we find a wide range of horizontal disparities to be represented. This points to geometrical relations between orientation, ocular dominance, and disparity maps that might be tested in experiments. Received: 9 July 1998 / Accepted in revised form: 2 June 1999     

Sparse coding of sensory inputs

Several theoretical, computational, and experimental studies suggest that neurons encode sensory information using a small number of active neurons at any given point in time. This strategy, referred to as 'sparse coding', could possibly confer several advantages. First, it allows for increased storage capacity in associative memories; second, it makes the structure in natural signals explicit; third, it represents complex data in a way that is easier to read out at subsequent levels of processing; and fourth, it saves energy. Recent physiological recordings from sensory neurons have indicated that sparse coding could be a ubiquitous strategy employed in several different modalities across different organisms.     

Synaptic learning rules and sparse coding in a model sensory system

Neural circuits exploit numerous strategies for encoding information. Although the functional significance of individual coding mechanisms has been investigated, ways in which multiple mechanisms interact and integrate are not well understood. The locust olfactory system, in which dense, transiently synchronized spike trains across ensembles of antenna lobe (AL) neurons are transformed into a sparse representation in the mushroom body (MB; a region associated with memory), provides a well-studied preparation for investigating the interaction of multiple coding mechanisms. Recordings made in vivo from the insect MB demonstrated highly specific responses to odors in Kenyon cells (KCs). Typically, only a few KCs from the recorded population of neurons responded reliably when a specific odor was presented. Different odors induced responses in different KCs. Here, we explored with a biologically plausible model the possibility that a form of plasticity may control and tune synaptic weights of inputs to the mushroom body to ensure the specificity of KCs' responses to familiar or meaningful odors. We found that plasticity at the synapses between the AL and the MB efficiently regulated the delicate tuning necessary to selectively filter the intense AL oscillatory output and condense it to a sparse representation in the MB. Activity-dependent plasticity drove the observed specificity, reliability, and expected persistence of odor representations, suggesting a role for plasticity in information processing and making a testable prediction about synaptic plasticity at AL-MB synapses.     

How stimulus shape affects lateral-line perception: analytical approach to analyze natural stimuli characteristics

We revisit the method of conformal mapping and apply it to the setting found in mechanosensory detection systems such as the lateral-line system of fish. We derive easy-to-use equations capable of describing analytically the influence of the stimulus shape on the flow field and thus on the input to the lateral line. The present approach shows that the shape of a submerged moving object affects its perception if its distance to a detecting animal does not exceed the object’s body length.     

Complex perception of stimuli during conditioning

The review concerns the effects of a variety of stimuli on the reproduction of conditioned reflexes. By the literature data, during conditioning of any type, besides the single stimulus intentionally applied by an experimenter as a conditioned one, an animal perceives the whole complex of stimuli (acoustic, visual, olfactory, algesic, and other exteroceptive, proprioceptive, and interoceptive stimuli), including those of the environment and time of the day during training. Many of these stimuli are essential for the reproduction of the acquired habit. The complex of stimuli that act on an animal during the reproduction should in all parameters correspond to that perceived by the animal during training. If the complexes differ at least in one stimulus, the reproduction of the reflex may fail.     

Neuronal mechanisms for the perception of ambiguous stimuli

Ambiguous figures that may take on the appearance of two or more distinct forms have fascinated philosophers and psychologists for generations. Recently, several laboratories have studied the neuronal basis of perceptual appearance at the level of single neurons in the cerebral cortex. Experiments that integrate neuronal recording with analyses based on sensory detection theory reveal a remarkable degree of specificity in these neuronal responses. The new challenges are to understand how cognitive processes, such as attention and memory, interact with perception to generate these neuronal signals.     

Measurements of the effects of air quality on sensory perception

Occupants in indoor non-industrial environments decide whether the indoor air quality is acceptable or not. This paper describes the method by which the assessments of acceptability of air quality can be used to measure short-term sensory effects on humans caused by indoor exposures. Advantages and disadvantages of the method are discussed in the light of a need for future research in order to fully understand how many variables (environmental, organismic, physiological and psychological) influence the ratings of acceptability of air quality and to learn how the results obtained in laboratory experiments can be used to predict responses in natural environments.     

A locust chordotonal organ coding for proprioceptive and acoustic stimuli

A chordotonal organ in the prothoracic segment of a locust combines features of a proprioceptive mechanoreceptor and an acoustic organ. This organ is closely associated with the tracheal system in the neck. The central nervous projections of the sensory cells contact neuropiles in all thoracic ganglia with the most dense arborizations in the metathoracic ganglion in close proximity, and even with some overlap, to the projections of tympanic fibres. Physiological experiments show that this organ responds to mechanical displacement of its receptor apodeme and, in addition, to acoustic stimulation via either a region of the cervical membrane which may act as a functional tympanic membrane, or via the tracheal system. Accepted: 14 October 1998     

A model of visual perception

In this paper we propose a model of visual perception in which a positive feedback mechanism can reproduce the pattern stimulus on a neurons screen. The pattern stimulus reproduction is based on informations coming from the spatial derivatives of visual pattern. This information together with the response of the feature extractors provides to the reproduction of the visual pattern as neuron screen electric activity. We simulate several input patterns and prove that the model reproduces the percept.