Connectionists: new paper on optimal tuning curves

[Emilio Salinas]

Dear Colleagues

(Apologies for multiple postings)

Readers of this list may be interested in this recently published paper.

Salinas E (2006) How behavioral constraints may determine optimal
sensory representations. PLoS Biol 4(12): e387. DOI:
10.1371/journal.pbio.0040387 

ABSTRACT
The sensory-triggered activity of a neuron is typically characterized in
terms of a tuning curve, which describes the neuron's average response
as a function of a parameter that characterizes a physical stimulus.
What determines the shapes of tuning curves in a neuronal population?
Previous theoretical studies and related experiments suggest that many
response characteristics of sensory neurons are optimal for encoding
stimulus-related information.  This notion, however, does not explain
the two general types of tuning profiles that are commonly observed:
unimodal and monotonic. Here, I quantify the efficacy of a set of tuning
curves according to the possible downstream motor responses that can be
constructed from them.  Curves that are optimal in this sense may have
monotonic or non-monotonic profiles, where the proportion of monotonic
curves and the optimal tuning curve width depend on the general
properties of the target downstream functions. This dependence explains
intriguing features of visual cells that are sensitive to binocular
disparity and of neurons tuned to echo delay in bats. The numerical
results suggest that optimal sensory tuning curves are shaped not only
by stimulus statistics and signal-to-noise properties, but also
according to their impact on downstream neural circuits and, ultimately,
on behavior.

The published version is freely available at:
http://biology.plosjournals.org/perlserv/?request=get-document&doi=10.13
71%2Fjournal.pbio.0040387

Cheers,

	Emilio

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Emilio Salinas
Assistant Professor
Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy
Wake Forest University School of Medicine
Winston-Salem NC 27157
Phone: (336) 713-5176
Fax: (336) 716-4534
e-mail: esalinas at wfubmc.edu
www.wfubmc.edu/nba/faculty/salinas
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