Mapping spikes to sensations

Mapping Spikes to Sensations

Single-unit recordings conducted during perceptual decision-making tasks have yielded tremendous insights into the neural coding of sensory stimuli. In such experiments, detection or discrimination behavior (the psychometric data) is observed in parallel with spike trains in sensory neurons (the neurometric data). Frequently, candidate neural codes for information read-out are pitted against ea...

Cartesian Sensations

Descartes maintained that sensations of color and the like misrepresent the material world in normal circumstances. Some prominent scholars have argued that, to explain this Cartesian view, we must attribute to Descartes a causal account of sensory representation. I contend that neither the arguments motivating this reading nor the textual evidence offered in its support is sufficient to justif...

Homeostasis-Driven Responses to Consumer Sensations

Neuronal Communication: Firing Spikes with Spikes

Spikes of single cortical neurons can exert powerful effects even though most cortical synapses are too weak to fire postsynaptic neurons. A recent study combining single-cell stimulation with population imaging has visualized in vivo postsynaptic firing in genetically identified target cells. The results confirm predictions from in vitro work and might help to understand how the brain reads si...

CURRICULUM MAPPING (RESPONSE TO CRITICS ON ARTICLE)

This article has no abstract.