Elements of information theory
Elements of information theory
Ten lectures on wavelets
Spikes: exploring the neural code
Spikes: exploring the neural code
Neural coding and contextual influences in the whisker system
Biological Cybernetics - Special Issue on Neuronal Dynamics of Sensory Coding
An introductory review of information theory in the context of computational neuroscience
Biological Cybernetics
All-purpose and plug-in power-law detectors for transient signals
IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing
Singularity detection and processing with wavelets
IEEE Transactions on Information Theory - Part 2
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When rats acquire sensory information by actively moving their vibrissae, a neural code is manifested at different levels of the sensory system. Behavioral studies in tactile discrimination agree that rats can distinguish different roughness surfaces by whisking their vibrissae. The present study explores the existence of neural encoding in the afferent activity of one vibrissal nerve. Two neural encoding schemes based on "events" were proposed (cumulative event count and median inter-event time). The events were detected by using an event detection algorithm based on multiscale decomposition of the signal (Continuous Wavelet Transform). The encoding schemes were quantitatively evaluated through the maximum amount of information which was obtained by the Shannon's mutual information formula. Moreover, the effect of difference distances between rat snout and swept surfaces on the information values was also studied. We found that roughness information was encoded by events of 0.8 ms duration in the cumulative event count and event of 1.0 to 1.6 ms duration in the median inter-event count. It was also observed that an extreme decrease of the distance between rat snout and swept surfaces significantly reduces the information values and the capacity to discriminate among the sweep situations.