Predicting the Timing of Spikes Evoked by Tactile Stimulation of the Hand

Kim, Sung Soo and Sripati, Arun P and Bensmaia, Sliman J (2010) Predicting the Timing of Spikes Evoked by Tactile Stimulation of the Hand. In: Journal of Neurophysiology, 104 (3). pp. 1484-1496.

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Abstract

Kim SS, Sripati AP, Bensmaia SJ. Predicting the timing of spikes evoked by tactile stimulation of the hand. J Neurophysiol 104: 1484-1496, 2010. First published July 7, 2010; doi: 10.1152/jn.00187.2010. What does the hand tell the brain? Tactile stimulation of the hand evokes remarkably precise patterns of neural activity, suggesting that the timing of individual spikes may convey information. However, many aspects of the transformation of mechanical deformations of the skin into spike trains remain unknown. Here we describe an integrate-and-fire model that accurately predicts the timing of individual spikes evoked by arbitrary mechanical vibrations in three types of mechanoreceptive afferent fibers that innervate the hand. The model accounts for most known properties of the three fiber types, including rectification, frequency-sensitivity, and patterns of spike entrainment as a function of stimulus frequency. These results not only shed light on the mechanisms of mechanotransduction but can be used to provide realistic tactile feedback in upper-limb neuroprostheses.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Publication:	Journal of Neurophysiology
Publisher:	The American Physiological Society
Additional Information:	Copyright of this article belongs to The American Physiological Society.
Keywords:	model • mechanotransduction • afferent • tactile
Department/Centre:	Division of Biological Sciences > Centre for Neuroscience
Date Deposited:	04 Nov 2010 10:48
Last Modified:	10 Nov 2010 05:41
URI:	http://eprints.iisc.ac.in/id/eprint/33547

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