On the transmission of information through sensory neurons.

ABSTRACT

Information about muscle length is transmitted to the cerebellum from muscle spindle receptors through the dorsal spinocerebellar tract (DSCT). The "transinformation" about muscle length in single DSCT fibers was calculated from steady-state spike trains by two different methods, assuming that the decoding mechanisms use a frequency code. By the first method, the number of distinguishable muscle lengths (and thus the transiformation) was determined from the rate of convergence of the mean frequency of firing (with increasing number of intervals). The observation time necessary to estimate the mean frequency of the impulse train with a certain accuracy was independent of the stretch level, even though the number of intervals necessary to make this estimate was different at high and low levels of stretch. By the second method an input frequency-output frequency matrix was calculated. The transinformations and the rate of transinformation was then calculated from this matrix. There was an acceptable agreement in the estimates of transinformation by the two methods. The rates of transinformation are significantly increased by the particular time structure of the discharge patterns of the nerve cells. Consequently, the loss of information due to the synaptic coupling is appreciably reduced.