Information theoretic analysis of dynamical encoding by filiform
mechanoreceptors in the cricket cercal system.
Roddey, Cooper and Gwen A. Jacobs.
Department of molecular and cell biology, university of california,
berkeley, california 94720.
APStracts 3:0001N, 1996.
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS
1. The stimulus/response properties of twenty mechanosensory receptors in the
cricket cercal sensory system were studied using electrophysiological
techniques. These receptors innervated filiform hairs of various lengths and
directional selectivities. Previous studies have characterized the sensitivity
of such cells to the direction of air currents and to the amplitude of
sinusoidal stimuli. In the experiments reported here, the quantity and quality
of information encoded in the receptors' elicited responses about the dynamics
of more complex air current waveforms were characterized. 2. Based on a white
noise analysis of receptor response properties, the median frequency of each
receptor's frequency tuning curve was found to be strongly correlated with the
length of its associated mechanosensory hair. The receptors connected to hairs
longer than 900 [mu]m encoded frequencies below about 150 Hz very accurately,
and the receptors connected to shorter hairs encoded progressively higher
bands of frequencies. These results were interpreted within the constraints
imposed by the biomechanics of the air current-to-cercus boundary. 3. The
encoding accuracy was expressed in the information theoretic units of
bits/sec, which characterizes the information transmission rate of a receptor.
The information rates of the neuronal spike trains ranged from 75 to 220
bits/sec. The information transmission rate was not correlated with the length
of the mechanosensory hair. The average amount of information transmitted per
action potential was negatively correlated with receptor hair length, and
ranged between 0.6 and 3.1 bits/spike. Decoding of the receptor responses was
restricted to linear transformations of the spike trains. 4. The
stimulus/response latencies of the different receptors ranged between 5 and 11
msec, and the integration time of the receptors ranged between 8 and 30 msec.
The latency of a receptor was only weakly correlated with the length of its
associated hair, and a receptor's integration time was correlated with hair
length. 5. The stimulus/response phase difference for receptor cells which
innervated hairs longer than about 800 [mu]m increased with frequency above 50
Hz. The phase responses for receptor cells connected to hairs shorter than 800
[mu]m did not vary for frequencies above 50 Hz.
Received 28 April 1995; accepted in final form 18 October 1995.
APS Manuscript Number J288-5.
Article publication pending J. Neurophysiol.
ISSN 1080-4757 Copyright 1996 The American Physiological Society.
Published in APStracts on 22 January 96