We investigated connections between the physiology of rat barrel cortex neurons and the sensation of vibration in humans. One set of experiments measured neuronal responses in anesthetized rats to trains of whisker deflections, each train characterized either by constant amplitude across all deflections or by variable amplitude ("amplitude noise"). Firing rate and firing synchrony were, on aver...

A simple approach for computing unsteady aerodynamic forces from simulated measured strain data is proposed in this study. First, the deflection and slope of the structure are computed from the unsteady strain. Velocities and accelerations of the structure are computed using the autoregressive moving average model, online parameter estimator, low-pass filter, and a least-squares curve fittingme...

OBJECTIVE A central question in auditory electrophysiology has been whether selective attention can modulate exogenous components of the scalp-recorded N1 (the 'N1 effect'). Intracranial electrocorticograms were used in the current work to investigate this issue in greater anatomical detail. METHODS Data were recorded from subdural electrodes placed across temporal cortex in 6 patient-volunte...

Trigeminal ganglion neurons in adult rats adapt to periodic whisker deflections in the range of 1-40 Hz, manifested as a reduction in spike counts to progressively later stimuli in a train of pulsatile or sinusoidal deflections. For high velocity, pulsatile deflections, adaptation is time- and frequency-dependent; as in the case of thalamic and cortical neurons, adaptation is greater at higher ...

Common quasi-static electrostatic micro actuators have significant limitations in deflection due to electrode separation and unstable drive regions. State-of-the-art electrostatic actuators achieve maximum deflections of approximately one third of the electrode separation. Large electrode separation and high driving voltages are normally required to achieve large actuator movements. Here we rep...

Surface stress is a material property that underpins many physical processes, such as the formation of self-assembled monolayers and the deposition of metal coatings. Due to its extreme sensitivity, atomic force microscopy ~AFM! has recently emerged as an important tool in the measurement of surface stress. Fundamental to this application is theoretical knowledge of the effects of surface stres...

This paper presents a design optimization method based on theoretical analysis and numerical calculations, using a commercial multi-physics solver (e.g., ANSYS and ESI CFD-ACE+), for a 3D continuous model, to analyze the bending characteristics of an electrically heated bimorph microcantilever. The results from the theoretical calculation and numerical analysis are compared with those measured ...