title: Empirically inspired simulated electro-mechanical model of the rat mystacial follicle-sinus complex.
abstract: In whiskered animals, activity is evoked in the primary sensory afferent cells (trigeminal nerve) by mechanical stimulation of the whiskers. In some cell populations this activity is correlated well with continuous stimulus parameters such as whisker deflection magnitude, but in others it is observed to represent events such as whisker-stimulator contact or detachment. The transduction process is mediated by the mechanics of the whisker shaft and follicle-sinus complex (FSC), and the mechanics and electro-chemistry of mechanoreceptors within the FSC. An understanding of this transduction process and the nature of the primary neural codes generated is crucial for understanding more central sensory processing in the thalamus and cortex. However, the details of the peripheral processing are currently poorly understood. To overcome this deficiency in our knowledge, we constructed a simulated electro-mechanical model of the whisker-FSC-mechanoreceptor system in the rat and tested it against a variety of data drawn from the literature. The agreement was good enough to suggest that the model captures many of the key features of the peripheral whisker system in the rat.
authors.affiliation: Adaptive Behaviour Research Group, Department of Psychology, The University of Sheffield, Sheffield S10 2TP, UK.
authors.forename: Ben
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Mitchinson
authors.forename: Kevin N
authors.initials: KN
authors.lastname: Gurney
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Redgrave
authors.forename: Chris
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Melhuish
authors.forename: Anthony G
authors.initials: AG
authors.lastname: Pipe
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Pearson
authors.forename: Ian
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Gilhespy
authors.forename: Tony J
authors.initials: TJ
authors.lastname: Prescott
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena; D008465:Mechanoreceptors / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000502:physiology*; D008953:Models, Anatomic; D051381:Rats / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000502:physiology*; D015398:Signal Transduction / Q000502:physiology*; D014738:Vibrissae / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000502:physiology*