Neural codes for perceptual discrimination in primary somatosensory cortex

Luna, R., Hernandez, A., Brody, C. D., Romo, R. (September 2005) Neural codes for perceptual discrimination in primary somatosensory cortex. Nature Neuroscience, 8 (9). pp. 1210-1219. ISSN 1097-6256

Abstract

We sought to determine the neural code(s) for frequency discrimination of vibrotactile stimuli. We tested five possible candidate codes by analyzing the responses of single neurons recorded in primary somatosensory cortex of trained monkeys while they discriminated between two consecutive vibrotactile stimuli. Differences in the frequency of two stimuli could be discriminated using information from (i) time intervals between spikes, (ii) average spiking rate during each stimulus, (iii) absolute number of spikes elicited by each stimulus, (iv) average rate of bursts of spikes or ( v) absolute number of spike bursts elicited by each stimulus. However, only a spike count code, in which spikes are integrated over a time window that has most of its mass in the first 250 ms of each stimulus period, covaried with behavior on a trial-by-trial basis, was consistent with psychophysical biases induced by manipulation of stimulus duration, and produced neurometric discrimination thresholds similar to behavioral psychophysical thresholds.

Item Type: Paper
Uncontrolled Keywords: parametric working memory decision making cortical neurons psychophysical measurements frequency discrimination flutter vibration prefrontal cortex premotor complex area MT mt sense
Subjects: bioinformatics > genomics and proteomics > annotation > map annotation
bioinformatics > genomics and proteomics > Mapping and Rendering
organism description > animal behavior
organs, tissues, organelles, cell types and functions > cell types and functions > cell types > neurons
organs, tissues, organelles, cell types and functions > cell types and functions > cell types > neurons
organs, tissues, organelles, cell types and functions > cell types and functions > cell types > neurons
CSHL Authors:
Communities: CSHL labs > Brody lab
Depositing User: CSHL Librarian
Date: September 2005
Date Deposited: 10 Jan 2012 15:53
Last Modified: 10 Jan 2012 15:53
URI: https://repository.cshl.edu/id/eprint/22639

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