1. BIOPHYSICS 6702 – ENCODING NEURAL INFORMATION
Stuart Mangel, Ph.D. March 24, 2017
Professor, Dept. of Neuroscience
BIOPHYSICS 6702 – ENCODING NEURAL INFORMATION
I. Organization of Sensory Systems
II. Attributes of Sensory Systems
a. Modality – Labeled Line Principle
b. Sub-modality (e.g. color, size, contrast, shape, speed of movement, etc.)
tuning curves; serial and parallel processing
c. Location of stimulus (receptive field; topographic map; spatial resolution)
d. Roles of spatial and temporal summation
e. Excitatory and inhibitory synaptic integration
f. Receptive field center and surround

2. Stuart Mangel, Ph.D.
Professor, Dept. of Neuroscience
College of Medicine

4. Labeled Line Principle in the Somatosensory System

5. The Structural Basis of the Receptive Field of
Receptors for the Sense of Touch

7. Map of the body surface from cutaneous mechanoreceptors to
somatosensory cortical areas 3b and 1 is orderly and shows that the representation of some body parts is more extensive and detailed than that of others.
First discuss topographic mapping in somatosensory cortex, and then state that presence of topographic maps allows neurologists to determine precise brain subregions and that there is a progressive spreading of excitation during seizures along topographic maps in the sensory cortex and motor cortex

8. The ability to discriminate between closed spaced stimuli
depends on the receptive field size

9. The resolution of a visual image depends on the density of
sensory receptors in the retina and the receptive field size of the receptors

12. Lateral inhibition between neurons produces a receptive field surround and decreases the size of the receptive field center

13. at a border between light and dark regions.
Lateral inhibitory connections enhance the perceived brightness contrast
at a border between light and dark regions.

14. Biophysics 6702 Encoding Neural Information Stuart Mangel, Ph.D.
DISCUSSION TOPICS
1. Cells in the brain and other organs of the body, such as the heart and liver, have much in common. Name some cellular and sub-cellular characteristics of brain cells that are similar to those found in other organs.
2. How is the brain different from other parts of the body at the cellular and sub-cellular level?

15. Readings for Biophysics 6702 – Lectures on March 24/31, 2017:
Kandel, Schwartz, Jessell, Siegelbaum & Hudspeth, 2013, Principles of Neural Science, 5th Ed., Chapters 21, 26
Masland, R.H. 2004, Direction Selectivity In The Visual Neurosciences, L. M. Chalupa and J. S. Werner, eds. (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press), pp