title: Decoding stimulus features in primate somatosensory cortex during perceptual categorization.
abstract: Neurons of the primary somatosensory cortex (S1) respond as functions of frequency or amplitude of a vibrotactile stimulus. However, whether S1 neurons encode both frequency and amplitude of the vibrotactile stimulus or whether each sensory feature is encoded by separate populations of S1 neurons is not known, To further address these questions, we recorded S1 neurons while trained monkeys categorized only one sensory feature of the vibrotactile stimulus: frequency, amplitude, or duration. The results suggest a hierarchical encoding scheme in S1: from neurons that encode all sensory features of the vibrotactile stimulus to neurons that encode only one sensory feature. We hypothesize that the dynamic representation of each sensory feature in S1 might serve for further downstream processing that leads to the monkey's psychophysical behavior observed in these tasks.
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Fisiología Celular-Neurociencias, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, 04510 México D.F., Mexico; and.
authors.forename: Manuel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Alvarez
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Fisiología Celular-Neurociencias, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, 04510 México D.F., Mexico; and.
authors.forename: Antonio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Zainos
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Fisiología Celular-Neurociencias, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, 04510 México D.F., Mexico; and El Colegio Nacional, 06020 México D.F., Mexico rromo@ifc.unam.mx.
authors.forename: Ranulfo
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Romo
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004192:Discrimination, Psychological / Q000502:physiology; D008253:Macaca mulatta / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D009474:Neurons / Q000502:physiology*; D010812:Physical Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D012677:Sensation / Q000502:physiology*; D013003:Somatosensory Cortex / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology*; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis; D014110:Touch / Q000502:physiology; D014732:Vibration
keywords: neurometric functions; psychometric functions; vibrotactile stimulus
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