HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS		QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s): Year:  Vol:  Page:

This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) All Versions of this Article: 95/6/3852    most recent 01240.2005v1 Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via ISI Web of Science (5) Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Sripati, A. P. Articles by Johnson, K. O. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Sripati, A. P. Articles by Johnson, K. O.

A Continuum Mechanical Model of Mechanoreceptive Afferent Responses to Indented Spatial Patterns

¹Krieger Mind/Brain Institute, and ²Departments of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and ³Neuroscience, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland

Submitted 29 November 2005; accepted in final form 8 February 2006

Information about the spatial structure of tactile stimuli is conveyed by slowly adapting type 1 (SA1) and rapidly adapting (RA) afferents innervating the skin. Here, we investigate how the spatial properties of the stimulus shape the afferent response. To that end, we present an analytical framework to characterize SA1 and RA responses to a wide variety of spatial patterns indented into the skin. This framework comprises a model of the tissue deformation produced by any three-dimensional indented spatial pattern, along with an expression that converts the deformation at the receptor site into a neural response. We evaluated 15 candidate variables for the relevant receptor deformation and found that physical quantities closely related to local membrane stretch were most predictive of the observed afferent responses. The main outcome of this study is an accurate working model of SA1 and RA afferent responses to indented spatial patterns.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				Y. C. Pei, S. S. Hsiao, and S. J. Bensmaia The tactile integration of local motion cues is analogous to its visual counterpart PNAS, June 10, 2008; 105(23): 8130 - 8135. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				S. J. Bensmaia, P. V. Denchev, J. F. Dammann III, J. C. Craig, and S. S. Hsiao The Representation of Stimulus Orientation in the Early Stages of Somatosensory Processing J. Neurosci., January 16, 2008; 28(3): 776 - 786. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]