Perception is usually an active process by which action selects and affects sensory information. During rodent active touch, whisker kinematics influences how objects activate sensory receptors. In order to fully characterize whisker motion, we reconstructed whisker position in 3D and decomposed whisker motion to all its degrees of freedom. We found that, across behavioral modes, in both head-fixed and freely moving rats, whisker motion is characterized by translational movements and three rotary components: azimuth, elevation, and torsion. Whisker torsion, which has not previously been described, was large (up to 100), and torsional angles were highly correlated with whisker azimuths. The coupling of azimuth and torsion was consistent across whisking epochs and rats and was similar along rows but systematically varied across rows such that rows A and E counterrotated. Torsional rotation of the whiskers enables contact information to be mapped onto the circumference of the whisker follicles in a predictable manner across protraction-retraction cycles.

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doi: 10.3389/fnsyn.2010.00017 Information carried by population spike times in the whisker sensory cortex can be decoded without knowledge of stimulus time

Sensation-targeted motor control: Every spike counts?

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Single-unit recordings conducted during perceptual decision-making tasks have yielded tremendous insights into the neural coding of sensory stimuli. In such experiments, detection or discrimination behavior (the psychometric data) is observed in parallel with spike trains in sensory neurons (the neurometric data). Frequently, candidate neural codes for information read-out are pitted against each other by transforming the neurometric data in some way and asking which code’s performance most closely approximates the psychometric performance.The code that matches the psychometric performance best is retained as a viable candidate and the others are rejected. In following this strategy, psychometric data is often considered to provide an unbiased measure of perceptual sensitivity. It is rarely acknowledged that psychometric data result from a complex interplay of sensory and non-sensory processes and that neglect of these processes may result in misestimating psychophysical sensitivity. This again may lead to erroneous conclusions regarding the adequacy of candidate neural codes. In this review, we first discuss requirements on the neural data for a subsequent neurometric-psychometric comparison. We then focus on different psychophysical tasks for the assessment of detection and discrimination performance

Characterization of the specificity of human neutrophil elastase for Shigella flexneri virulence factors

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results suggest serial information flow from sensory mice to track the flow of information during perceptual decision making. Rodents use their whiskers to navigate tight spaces andLafuente and Romo, 2005) (reviewed in Romo and de Lafuente, 2013). Serial information flow has also been observed in visual perceptual decision tasks in primates (Bisley et al., 2001; Gold 2011). The vast majority of cortical areas remain unstudied in the context of tactile discrimination. Inactivating vS1 caused deficits in object location discrimina-and Shadlen, 2002; Seidemann et al., 1998). Relating neuronal signals to behavior requires rapid and reversible (within a trial tion (Hutson and Masterton, 1986; O’Connor et al., 2010a, 2013), mainly during sensation. Unilateral inactivation of a frontalto motor areas during perceptual decision making.

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