A metric for the breadth of tuning of gustatory neurons

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
The breadth of the responsiveness of gustatory neurons to the four basic taste stimuli (sucrose,NaCl, HCl and quinine hydrochloride) is a question of importance to current theories of gustatory quality coding. The mathematical expression of entropy from information theory can provide a measure of the breadth of tuning of these neurons. The entropy measure, as applied here, varies continuously from 0.0 for a unit that responds exclusively to one stimulus (i.e., narrowly tuned) to 1.0 for a cell that responds equivalently to all four of the basic compounds (i.e., broadly tuned). Subtle variations in the neural response profile of a cell, such as those produced by changes in stimulus concentration, are reflected in this measure. Thus, the use of the equation for entropy to describe the responsiveness of gustatory neurons provides a quantitative measure of their breadth of tuning that can be meaningfully applied to the problems of gustatory quality coding.

This publication has 0 references indexed in Scilit: