title: Independent components of the neural population response for discrimination of quality and intensity of chemical stimuli.
abstract: The responses of a population of 30 olfactory receptor cells from spiny lobsters to 8 behaviorally relevant complex types of stimuli at 0.005, 0.05 and 0.5 mM were analyzed using multidimensional scaling to evaluate their potential for coding quality and intensity. A discrimination index was derived from the resulting stimulus coordinates, which takes into account the response similarities within type/concentration and the response dissimilarities between types/concentrations. The results indicate that quality and intensity can be discriminated by separate components of the response of the population of neurons: quality by the pattern of responses produced across the neuronal population, and intensity by the absolute response magnitude.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, Georgia State University, Atlanta.
authors.forename: M N
authors.initials: MN
authors.lastname: Girardot
authors.forename: C D
authors.initials: CD
authors.lastname: Derby
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001143:Arousal / Q000502:physiology; D002628:Chemoreceptor Cells / Q000502:physiology*; D004193:Discrimination Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D015233:Models, Statistical; D008121:Nephropidae / Q000502:physiology*; D009424:Nervous System Physiological Phenomena; D009474:Neurons / Q000502:physiology; D011601:Psychophysics; D012684:Sensory Thresholds / Q000502:physiology; D012903:Smell / Q000502:physiology*; D013649:Taste / Q000502:physiology*; D013652:Taste Threshold / Q000502:physiology*