How sensory maps could enhance resolution through ordered arrangements of broadly tuned receivers.
We investigate the properties of a model recently introduced by Heiligenberg (1987) for an array of sensors tuned to progressively higher ranges of a continuous stimulus variable x and with bell shaped single response curve with width parameter d. The main result is that as d increases, the overall response rapidly becomes almost linear in a very smooth and robust fashion. Biological relevance and implications of the model and of its extensions are discussed together with a few examples.
Baldi
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P
Department of Mathematics, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla 92093.
Heiligenberg
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W
D008433:Mathematics; D008959:Models, Neurological; D009475:Neurons, Afferent / Q000502:physiology*