On the information received by sensory receptors

✍ Scribed by Kenneth H. Norwich

• Book ID: 104272239
• Publisher: Springer
• Year: 1977
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 609 KB
• Volume: 39
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1522-9602
• DOI: 10.1016/s0092-8240(77)90005-2

✦ Synopsis

It is hypothesized that a sensory neuron, a neuron issuing from a sensory receptor, encodes the rate at which entropy or uncertainty is removed at the receptor level. This hypothesis is tested for the case of the entropy associated with the magnitude of a signal (stimulus) applied at the sensory receptor. A simple mathematical model of the process is presented and a number of well-known stimulus-response relationships are seen to emerge. For example, the adaptation of a receptor may be seen to occur as a consequence of reduced uncertainty regarding stimulus intensity. A general equation relating stimulus and response is developed, and this equation will simplify, depending upon the ratio of signal power to noise power, to either a logarithmic or a power law.

Inrroducrion.