NEUR3112 Lecture Notes - Lecture 20: Neural Coding, Sensory Cortex, Basal Forebrain
Document Summary
When you have a bad signal, you turn up the volume. Even though this will also increase background noise, it might help you distinguish the actual message as well. Neural coding: cortical state sensory prioritisation sensory decision making representation of space coding for reward. Gain modulation -> like listening to the radio. Animal detects vibration with whiskers -> determine right exit to escape predator. The attention modulation -> the situation the rat is in should control the modularity. If it can"t see anything, it might rely on the whisker vibration detection to know where a predator is. If there was a bird flying overhead, it might rely more on the visual system. Experiment -> gave a rat difficult to detect tactile and visual signals. So essentially made the senses "compete" for modality. Changed the ratio of tactile to visual stimulation -> which ever was more highly represented in the trail, its system was prioritised.
