Predicting Properties of the Rat Somatosensory System by Sparse Coding

Many studies address how neurons in the barrel cortex of rats react to stimula- tion of the rat's whiskers. In this study we analyse how the statistical properties of whisker deflections from typical surfaces relate to the properties of neurons in the somatosensory system. We built an artificial whisker system to record realistic natural tactile data. An artificial whisker is moved about a set of surfaces of everyday objects. We analyse how simulated neurons can represent such stimuli in an optimally sparse fashion. These representations predict a number of interesting properties of neurons in the somatosensory system that have yet to be measured.

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