title: The response clamp: functional characterization of neural systems using closed-loop control.
abstract: The voltage clamp method, pioneered by Hodgkin, Huxley, and Katz, laid the foundations to neurophysiological research. Its core rationale is the use of closed-loop control as a tool for system characterization. A recently introduced method, the response clamp, extends the voltage clamp rationale to the functional, phenomenological level. The method consists of on-line estimation of a response variable of interest (e.g., the probability of response or its latency) and a simple feedback control mechanism designed to tightly converge this variable toward a desired trajectory. In the present contribution I offer a perspective on this novel method and its applications in the broader context of system identification and characterization. First, I demonstrate how internal state variables are exposed using the method, and how the use of several controllers may allow for a detailed, multi-variable characterization of the system. Second, I discuss three different categories of applications of the method: (1) exploration of intrinsically generated dynamics, (2) exploration of extrinsically generated dynamics, and (3) generation of input-output trajectories. The relation of these categories to similar uses in the voltage clamp and other techniques is also discussed. Finally, I discuss the method's limitations, as well as its possible synthesis with existing complementary approaches.
authors: Department of Neurobiology, Weizmann Institute of Science Rehovot, Israel.
authors: Avner
authors: A
authors: Wallach
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D000818:Animals; D005246:Feedback; D006801:Humans; D009415:Nerve Net / Q000502:physiology; D016571:Neural Networks, Computer; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology
keywords: closed-loop; control; physiology; psychophysics; response clamp
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