Brain and Cognition 1 – Tutorial: Receptive Fields
Answer Sheet
Tutorial aims:
- You know what a receptive field is.
- You know how a receptive field can be measured.
- You understand how perception is organized in a hierarchical fashion, both with respect to receptive
field size and with respect to tuning.
- You know what the correspondence between the outside world (as perceived by the sensory
organs) and its neural representation.
- You know the similarities and differences between the visual and the somatosensory modalities.
Preparation (before study group)
- Prepare all questions before the meeting.
- Please take with you to the study group meeting: the handbook, a printed version of the answer
sheets (available on blackboard) and headphones (to be able to listen to auditory information in the
movies).
Product
- Answers to the questions that link the concept of receptive fields to two sensory systems (visual and
somatosensory).
- Experiencing and measuring sensitivity of a few body parts, and thus producing your own
personalized homunculus.
Page 1 of 6
, Question 1
a. List all the human senses in the left part of the table below.
Horen Geluidsgolven, trillingen door de haarcellen clia
Zien Licht door de ganglian cellen
Voelen Vervormingen van de huid
Proeven Smaak
Ruiken geur
b. Supplement your list of senses with a brief description of the type of signal that each sensory organ
(its receptor cells) responds to.
Question 2
Under which visual stimulation does the neuron produce the most action potentials?
Als er direct licht op het punt valt waarop je kijkt.
Question 3
a. Assume you repeat the experiment of Hubel and Wiesel while measuring spikes from an on-center-
off-surround RGC. What would the response of the RGC be when the cat is looking at a fully lit
screen?
Een on-center-off surround RGC betekent dat de cel wordt geexhibeert wanneer er licht komt op de
center. Als je kijkt naar een fully lit screen dan wordt de cel geexhibeert en inhibeert tegelijkertijd.
Exhitatie is wel sterker dus daarom is de cell response rate wel nog boven het level van spontanteous
activitiy.
b. Explain how this RGC response pattern to a fully lit screen can be explained? Take into account the
different types of synaptic input to RGCs (see Figure 2).
Page 2 of 6
Answer Sheet
Tutorial aims:
- You know what a receptive field is.
- You know how a receptive field can be measured.
- You understand how perception is organized in a hierarchical fashion, both with respect to receptive
field size and with respect to tuning.
- You know what the correspondence between the outside world (as perceived by the sensory
organs) and its neural representation.
- You know the similarities and differences between the visual and the somatosensory modalities.
Preparation (before study group)
- Prepare all questions before the meeting.
- Please take with you to the study group meeting: the handbook, a printed version of the answer
sheets (available on blackboard) and headphones (to be able to listen to auditory information in the
movies).
Product
- Answers to the questions that link the concept of receptive fields to two sensory systems (visual and
somatosensory).
- Experiencing and measuring sensitivity of a few body parts, and thus producing your own
personalized homunculus.
Page 1 of 6
, Question 1
a. List all the human senses in the left part of the table below.
Horen Geluidsgolven, trillingen door de haarcellen clia
Zien Licht door de ganglian cellen
Voelen Vervormingen van de huid
Proeven Smaak
Ruiken geur
b. Supplement your list of senses with a brief description of the type of signal that each sensory organ
(its receptor cells) responds to.
Question 2
Under which visual stimulation does the neuron produce the most action potentials?
Als er direct licht op het punt valt waarop je kijkt.
Question 3
a. Assume you repeat the experiment of Hubel and Wiesel while measuring spikes from an on-center-
off-surround RGC. What would the response of the RGC be when the cat is looking at a fully lit
screen?
Een on-center-off surround RGC betekent dat de cel wordt geexhibeert wanneer er licht komt op de
center. Als je kijkt naar een fully lit screen dan wordt de cel geexhibeert en inhibeert tegelijkertijd.
Exhitatie is wel sterker dus daarom is de cell response rate wel nog boven het level van spontanteous
activitiy.
b. Explain how this RGC response pattern to a fully lit screen can be explained? Take into account the
different types of synaptic input to RGCs (see Figure 2).
Page 2 of 6
