EVENT DETAILS AND ABSTRACT

Title: Hardware Models for Studying Sensory Coding in the Nervous System
Speaker: Mitra Hartmann
Speaker Info: Northwestern University
Brief Description:
Special Note: More current information may be available at Plan-it Purple
Abstract:

Rats use rhythmic (5-12 Hz) movements of their whiskers to explore the environment and to extract information about 3-dimensional object features, including size, shape, and texture. Our laboratory uses the rat whisker system as a model to study how information is encoded and represented in the brain. We have constructed robotic whisker arrays that shed light on the following questions: (1) How is object distance encoded by the rat whisker system? (2) How might information be represented in the first stages of sensory processing (the trigeminal ganglion)? What does a “receptive field” mean at these stages? (3) How might periodic movement aid in sensory acquisition? Finally, I will describe how our whisker arrays may be used to enable more autonomous robots.