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Science 25 June 2004:
Vol. 304. no. 5679, pp. 1986 - 1989
DOI: 10.1126/science.1097779
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Reports

Robust Temporal Coding in the Trigeminal System

Lauren M. Jones,1 Didier A. Depireux,1 Daniel J. Simons,2 Asaf Keller1*

The ability of rats to use their whiskers for fine tactile discrimination rivals that of humans using their fingertips. Rats perform discriminations rapidly and accurately while palpating the environment with their whiskers. This suggests that whisker deflections produce a robust and reliable neural code. Whisker primary afferents respond with highly reproducible temporal spike patterns to transient stimuli. Here we show that, with the use of a linear kernel, any of these reproducible response trains recorded from an individual neuron can reliably predict complex whisker deflections. These predictions are significantly improved by integrating responses from neurons with opposite angular preferences.

1 Program in Neuroscience and Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21201, USA.
2 Department of Neurobiology, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, PA 15261, USA.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: akeller{at}umaryland.edu

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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)