The map in your head: how does the brain represent the outside world?
In neurophysics, a "map" is a neuronal representation of the outside world. It originates from spatiotemporal activity of a sensory organ. For example, touch provides a one-to-one representation of our skin in the cortex, a somatosensory map. In a similar way, visual and auditory maps are representations of the retina and the cochlea and provide us with spatial, temporal, and, more generally, spatiotemporal maps of sensory activity. In this introduction we concentrate on temporal aspects and show how temporal maps arise in the brain. Through prey localization the sand scorpion, the barn owl, and the paddle fish provide fascinating examples of neuronal maps, which are analyzed in detail.
van Hemmen
J Leo
JL
Physik Department T35, Technische Universität München, 85747 Garching, Germany. LvH@ph.tum.de
D000818:Animals; D055592:Biophysical Phenomena; D001703:Biophysics; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D007858:Learning; D013045:Species Specificity; D009435:Synaptic Transmission