Information theoretic analysis of dynamical encoding by filiform mechanoreceptors in the cricket cercal system

1996 ◽  
Vol 75 (4) ◽  
pp. 1365-1376 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. C. Roddey ◽  
G. A. Jacobs
Keyword(s):  
Information Transmission ◽  
Transmission Rate ◽  
Spike Trains ◽  
Integration Time ◽  
Median Frequency ◽  
Hair Length ◽  
Information Theoretic ◽  
Response Properties ◽  
Stimulus Response ◽  
Receptor Cells

1. The stimulus/response properties of 20 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 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 > 900 microns encoded frequencies below approximately 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/second, which characterizes the information transmission rate of a receptor. The information rates of the neuronal spike trains ranged from 75 to 220 bits/s. 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 ms, and the integration time of the receptors ranged between 8 and 30 ms. 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 that innervated hairs longer than approximately 800 microns increased with frequency > 50 Hz. The phase responses for receptor cells connected to hairs < 800 microns did not vary for frequencies > 50 Hz.

scholarly journals Signal Fluctuations and the Information Transmission Rates in Binary Communication Channels

Entropy ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 92
Author(s):  
Agnieszka Pregowska
Keyword(s):  
Information Transmission ◽  
Action Potentials ◽  
Transition Probabilities ◽  
Transmission Rate ◽  
Spike Trains ◽  
Learning Mechanisms ◽  
Transmission Rates ◽  
Stationary Stochastic Processes ◽  
System Information ◽  
Selection Of

In the nervous system, information is conveyed by sequence of action potentials, called spikes-trains. As MacKay and McCulloch suggested, spike-trains can be represented as bits sequences coming from Information Sources (IS). Previously, we studied relations between spikes’ Information Transmission Rates (ITR) and their correlations, and frequencies. Now, I concentrate on the problem of how spikes fluctuations affect ITR. The IS are typically modeled as stationary stochastic processes, which I consider here as two-state Markov processes. As a spike-trains’ fluctuation measure, I assume the standard deviation σ, which measures the average fluctuation of spikes around the average spike frequency. I found that the character of ITR and signal fluctuations relation strongly depends on the parameter s being a sum of transitions probabilities from a no spike state to spike state. The estimate of the Information Transmission Rate was found by expressions depending on the values of signal fluctuations and parameter s. It turned out that for smaller s<1, the quotient ITRσ has a maximum and can tend to zero depending on transition probabilities, while for 1<s, the ITRσ is separated from 0. Additionally, it was also shown that ITR quotient by variance behaves in a completely different way. Similar behavior was observed when classical Shannon entropy terms in the Markov entropy formula are replaced by their approximation with polynomials. My results suggest that in a noisier environment (1<s), to get appropriate reliability and efficiency of transmission, IS with higher tendency of transition from the no spike to spike state should be applied. Such selection of appropriate parameters plays an important role in designing learning mechanisms to obtain networks with higher performance.

scholarly journals Information encoding and transmission profiles of first-language (L1) and second-language (L2) speech*

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
Ann R. Bradlow
Keyword(s):  
Information Transmission ◽  
Transmission Rate ◽  
Speech Rate ◽  
First Language ◽  
Information Encoding ◽  
Information Theoretic ◽  
Information Density ◽  
Temporal Domain ◽  
Cross Language ◽  
L1 And L2

Abstract Inspired by information theoretic analyses of L1 speech and language, this study proposes that L1 and L2 speech exhibit distinct information encoding and transmission profiles in the temporal domain. Both the number and average duration of acoustic syllables (i.e., intensity peaks in the temporal envelope) were automatically measured from L1 and L2 recordings of standard texts in English, French, and Spanish. Across languages, L2 acoustic syllables were greater in number (more acoustic syllables/text) and longer in duration (fewer acoustic syllables/second). While substantial syllable reduction (fewer acoustic than orthographic syllables) was evident in both L1 and L2 speech, L2 speech generally exhibited less syllable reduction, resulting in low information density (more syllables with less information/syllable). Low L2 information density compounded low L2 speech rate yielding very low L2 information transmission rate (i.e., less information/second). Overall, this cross-language comparison establishes low information transmission rate as a language-general, distinguishing feature of L2 speech.

scholarly journals Signal Fluctuations and the Information Transmission Rates in Binary Communication Channels

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Agnieszka Pregowska
Keyword(s):  
Information Transmission ◽  
Information Sources ◽  
Transition Probabilities ◽  
Transmission Rate ◽  
Spike Trains ◽  
Noisy Environment ◽  
Transmission Rates ◽  
Stationary Stochastic Processes ◽  
System Information ◽  
Transmission Information

(1) Background: In nervous system information is conveyed by a sequence of action potentials, called spikes-trains. As MacKay and McCulloch proposed, spike-trains can be represented as bits sequences coming from Information Sources. Previously, we studied relations between Information Transmission Rates (ITR) carried out by the spikes, their correlations, and frequencies. Here, we concentrate on the problem of how spikes fluctuations affect ITR. (2) Methods: The Information Theory Method developed by Shannon is applied. Information Sources are modeled as stationary stochastic processes. We assume such sources as two states Markov processes. As a spike-trains' fluctuation measure, we consider the Standard Deviation sigma, which, in fact, measures average fluctuation of spikes around the average spike frequency. (3) Results: We found that character of ITR and signal fluctuations relation strongly depends on the parameter s which is a sum of transitions probabilities from no spike state to spike state and vice versa. It turned out that for smaller s (s&lt;1) the quotient ITR\sigma has a maximum and can tend to zero depending on transition probabilities. While for s large enough (1&lt;s) the ITR\sigma is separated from 0 for each s. Similar behavior was observed also when we replaced Shannon entropy terms in Markov entropy formula by their approximation with polynomials. We also show that the ITR quotient by Variance behaves in a completely different way. (4) Conclusions: Our results show that for large transition parameter s the Information Transmission Rate by sigma will never decrease to zero. Specifically, for 1&lt;s&lt;1.7 the ITR will be always, independently on transition probabilities which form this s, above the level of fluctuations, i.e. in this case we have sigma&lt;ITR. Thus, we conclude that in a more noisy environment, to get appropriate reliability and efficiency of transmission, Information Sources with higher tendency of transition from the state no spike to spike state and vice versa should be applied.

How Synaptic Release Probability Shapes Neuronal Transmission: Information-Theoretic Analysis in a Cerebellar Granule Cell

2010 ◽  
Vol 22 (8) ◽  
pp. 2031-2058 ◽  
Author(s):  
Angelo Arleo ◽  
Thierry Nieus ◽  
Michele Bezzi ◽  
Anna D'Errico ◽  
Egidio D'Angelo ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Information Transmission ◽  
Numerical Simulations ◽  
Granule Cell ◽  
Mossy Fiber ◽  
Dendritic Tree ◽  
Long Term Potentiation ◽  
Cerebellar Granule Cell ◽  
Information Theoretic ◽  
Cerebellar Granule ◽  
Release Probability

A nerve cell receives multiple inputs from upstream neurons by way of its synapses. Neuron processing functions are thus influenced by changes in the biophysical properties of the synapse, such as long-term potentiation (LTP) or depression (LTD). This observation has opened new perspectives on the biophysical basis of learning and memory, but its quantitative impact on the information transmission of a neuron remains partially elucidated. One major obstacle is the high dimensionality of the neuronal input-output space, which makes it unfeasible to perform a thorough computational analysis of a neuron with multiple synaptic inputs. In this work, information theory was employed to characterize the information transmission of a cerebellar granule cell over a region of its excitatory input space following synaptic changes. Granule cells have a small dendritic tree (on average, they receive only four mossy fiber afferents), which greatly bounds the input combinatorial space, reducing the complexity of information-theoretic calculations. Numerical simulations and LTP experiments quantified how changes in neurotransmitter release probability (p) modulated information transmission of a cerebellar granule cell. Numerical simulations showed that p shaped the neurotransmission landscape in unexpected ways. As p increased, the optimality of the information transmission of most stimuli did not increase strictly monotonically; instead it reached a plateau at intermediate p levels. Furthermore, our results showed that the spatiotemporal characteristics of the inputs determine the effect of p on neurotransmission, thus permitting the selection of distinctive preferred stimuli for different p values. These selective mechanisms may have important consequences on the encoding of cerebellar mossy fiber inputs and the plasticity and computation at the next circuit stage, including the parallel fiber–Purkinje cell synapses.

Histamine-induced modulation of olfactory receptor neurones in two species of lobster, Panulirus argus and Homarus americanus

1989 ◽  
Vol 145 (1) ◽  
pp. 133-146 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. A. Bayer ◽  
T. S. McClintock ◽  
U. Grunert ◽  
B. W. Ache
Keyword(s):  
Receptor Antagonist ◽  
Olfactory Receptor ◽  
Single Cells ◽  
Homarus Americanus ◽  
Chloride Ions ◽  
Electrophysiological Recording ◽  
Stimulus Response ◽  
Olfactory Receptor Cells ◽  
Receptor Cells ◽  
The One

In two species of lobster, application of the biogenic amine, histamine (HA), to the soma of olfactory receptor cells suppressed both spontaneous and odour-evoked activity, as shown by electrophysiological recording from single cells. The action of HA was graded, reversible, specific to HA, and had a threshold between 0.1 and 1 mumol l-1. HA increased the conductance of the membrane, primarily to chloride ions. The vertebrate HA receptor antagonist, cimetidine, and the nicotinic receptor antagonist, d-tubocurarine, but not other known vertebrate HA receptor antagonists, reversibly blocked the action of HA. These results suggest that a histaminergic mechanism modulates stimulus-response coupling in lobster olfactory receptor cells and potentially implicate a novel HA receptor, pharmacologically similar to the one recently described in the visual system of flies.

Information theoretic analysis of dynamical encoding by four identified primary sensory interneurons in the cricket cercal system

1996 ◽  
Vol 75 (4) ◽  
pp. 1345-1364 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. Theunissen ◽  
J. C. Roddey ◽  
S. Stufflebeam ◽  
H. Clague ◽  
J. P. Miller
Keyword(s):  
Spike Train ◽  
Linear Expansion ◽  
Spike Rate ◽  
Reconstruction Technique ◽  
Signal To Noise ◽  
Information Theoretic ◽  
Cercal System ◽  
Stimulus Response ◽  
The Mean ◽  
Analytical Approaches

1. The stimulus/response properties of four identified primary sensory interneurons in the cricket cercal sensory system were studied using electrophysiological techniques. These four cells are thought to represent a functionally discrete subunit of the cercal system: they are the only cells that encode information about stimulus direction to higher centers for low intensity stimuli. Previous studies characterized the quantity of information encoded by these cells about the direction of air currents in the horizontal plane. In the experiments reported here, we characterized the quantity and quality of information encoded in the cells' elicited responses about the dynamics of air current waveforms presented at their optimal stimulus directions. The total sample set included 22 cells. 2. This characterization was achieved by determining the cells' frequency sensitivities and encoding accuracy using the methods of stochastic systems analysis and information theory. The specific approach used for the analysis was the "stimulus reconstruction" technique in which a functional expansion was derived to transform the observed spike train responses into the optimal estimate (i.e., "reconstruction") of the actual stimulus. A novel derivation of the crucial equations is presented. The reverse approach is compared with the more traditional forward analysis, in which an expansion is derived that transforms the stimulus to a prediction of the spike train response. Important aspects of the application of these analytical approaches are considered. 3. All four interneurons were found to have identical frequency tuning, as assessed by the accuracy with which different frequency components of stimulus waveforms could be reconstructed with a linear expansion. The interneurons encoded significant information about stimulus frequencies between 5 and 80 Hz, which peak sensitivities at approximately 15 Hz. 4. All four interneurons were found to have identical stimulus/response latencies. The mean latency between a stimulus component and the corresponding elicited spike was 17 ms. All four interneurons also had identical integration times. The integration time, measured by the duration of stimulus, which could affect the probability of spiking, was approximately 50 ms. 5. The accuracy of the encoding can be expressed as a signal-to-noise ratio, where the noise is a scaled difference between the original signal and the best estimate of the signal. Peak signal-to-noise ratios of approximately 1 were obtained for the cells across all stimulus power levels, using only the linear expansion term. Analysis of the data indicated that the consideration of second-order nonlinear transformations of the stimulus would not have increased the calculated encoding accuracy. 6. The encoding accuracy also can be expressed in the information theoretic units of bits/second, which characterizes the information transmission rate of the cell. Bits/second values varied between 10 and 80 for the 22 different cells in our experimental set. The information rate values were highly correlated with the mean spike rates of the interneurons, but were not correlated with the stimulus power levels. However, normalizing the absolute information rates by the mean spike rate in each case yielded a measure of bits/spike that was remarkably invariant across all experiments. The measured bits/spike rate was approximately 1 for all experiments. This result is discussed in the context of recent theoretical studies on optimal encoding. 7. Although the dynamic sensitivities of the four interneurons were identical, their directional sensitivities are known to be orthogonal. Thus the cells are complementary to one another from a functional standpoint: whereas a particular cell will be insensitive to air currents from some directions, one or more of the other three cells will be sensitive to stimuli from those directions...

Olfactory bulb responses to odor stimulation: analysis of response pattern and intensity relationships

1986 ◽  
Vol 56 (6) ◽  
pp. 1571-1589 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. A. Harrison ◽  
J. W. Scott
Keyword(s):  
Olfactory Bulb ◽  
Stimulus Intensity ◽  
Plexiform Layer ◽  
Response Assessment ◽  
Spike Trains ◽  
Response Magnitude ◽  
Response Form ◽  
Stimulus Response ◽  
Response Profiles ◽  
Inhibitory Components

Extracellular recordings were made from mitral cells, tufted cells, and presumed glomerular layer and external plexiform layer interneurons of the olfactory bulb of anesthetized rats during odor stimulation. Intensity responses of these cells were studied by presenting a series of six or seven concentrations, spanning a range greater than two log units, in a cyclic artificial sniff paradigm, which produced repeated response measures at each concentration. Experiments focused on obtaining a complete intensity series, including interspersed unstimulated spontaneous activity records, for a single odorant (usually amyl acetate), but concentration responses to other odorants were tested when possible. Odor responses of 46 cells were studied with two approaches. Response form was examined in an attempt to define response classes based on qualitative characteristics of the temporal pattern of response. Assessment of response magnitude was attempted, in order to construct stimulus-response functions for each cell, independent of response form. As previously reported for olfactory bulb cells, the cells in our sample responded to odor stimulation with spike trains of a variety of temporal patterns, consisting of excitatory and inhibitory components that were frequently recognizable in the responses of a cell across a range of concentrations. However, response patterns usually changed significantly with concentration, such that response form across the concentration range could not be predicted from the response at any one concentration. Responses of different cells were sometimes similar to each other in form at one concentration and quite different from each other in the rest of their concentration-response profiles. Classification of response profiles into discrete types, based on consistency of response form throughout the profile, was therefore not feasible. In agreement with other reports, response of a single cell to different odorants sometimes showed similar forms and sometimes showed very different forms across the concentration-response profiles. Since the response form depends on the stimulus intensity as well as the stimulus quality, characterization of response magnitude and of the pattern of response to different odors require testing with a series of stimulus concentrations. Because odor responses consisted of temporally patterned spike trains, whose components changed in complex ways with stimulus intensity, it was not possible to quantify response magnitude by measuring characteristics of particular response components or counting mean frequency.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)

scholarly journals Nociception in fish: stimulus–response properties of receptors on the head of trout Oncorhynchus mykiss

2007 ◽  
Vol 1166 ◽  
pp. 47-54 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul J. Ashley ◽  
Lynne U. Sneddon ◽  
Catherine R. McCrohan
Keyword(s):  
Oncorhynchus Mykiss ◽  
Response Properties ◽  
Stimulus Response
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