Functional specificity of rat vibrissal primary afferents.
In this study, we propose to analyze the peripheral vibrissal system specificity through its neuronal responses. Receiver operating characteristics (ROC) curve analyses were used, which required the implementation of a binary classifier (artificial neural network) trained to identify the applied stimulus. The training phase consisted of the observation of a predetermined amount of vibrissal sweeps on two surfaces of different texture and similar roughness. Our results suggest that the specificity of the peripheral vibrissal system easily permits the discrimination between perceived stimuli, quantified through neuronal responses, and that it can be evaluated through an ROC curve analysis. We found that such specificity makes a linear binary classifier capable of detecting differences between stimuli with five sweeps at most.
Laboratorio de Medios e Interfases (LAMEIN), Universidad Nacional de Tucumán, San Miguel de Tucumán, Argentina Departamento de Bioingeniería, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Tecnología, Instituto Superior de Investigaciones Biológicas (INSIBIO), CONICET - UNT, San Miguel de Tucumán, Argentina facundolucianna@gmail.com.
Facundo A
FA
Lucianna
Laboratorio de Medios e Interfases (LAMEIN), Universidad Nacional de Tucumán, San Miguel de Tucumán, Argentina Departamento de Bioingeniería, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Tecnología, Instituto Superior de Investigaciones Biológicas (INSIBIO), CONICET - UNT, San Miguel de Tucumán, Argentina.
Fernando D
FD
Farfán
Laboratorio de Medios e Interfases (LAMEIN), Universidad Nacional de Tucumán, San Miguel de Tucumán, Argentina Departamento de Bioingeniería, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Tecnología, Instituto Superior de Investigaciones Biológicas (INSIBIO), CONICET - UNT, San Miguel de Tucumán, Argentina.
Gabriel A
GA
Pizá
Laboratorio de Medios e Interfases (LAMEIN), Universidad Nacional de Tucumán, San Miguel de Tucumán, Argentina Departamento de Bioingeniería, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Tecnología, Instituto Superior de Investigaciones Biológicas (INSIBIO), CONICET - UNT, San Miguel de Tucumán, Argentina.
Ana L
AL
Albarracín
Laboratorio de Medios e Interfases (LAMEIN), Universidad Nacional de Tucumán, San Miguel de Tucumán, Argentina Departamento de Bioingeniería, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Tecnología, Instituto Superior de Investigaciones Biológicas (INSIBIO), CONICET - UNT, San Miguel de Tucumán, Argentina.
Carmelo J
CJ
Felice
D000344:Afferent Pathways / Q000502:physiology*; D000818:Animals; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D009475:Neurons, Afferent / Q000502:physiology*; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D013003:Somatosensory Cortex / Q000502:physiology; D014738:Vibrissae / Q000294:innervation*
Peripheral afferent activity; ROC analysis; specificity; vibrissae