We present a neurorobotic framework to investigate tactile information processing at the early stages of the somatosensory pathway. We focus on spatiotemporal coding of first and second order responses to Braille stimulation, which offers a suitable protocol to investigate the neural bases of fine touch discrimination. First, we model Slow Adaptive type I fingertip mechanoreceptor responses to ...

The sense of touch relies on detection of mechanical stimuli by specialized mechanosensory neurons. The scarcity of molecular data has made it difficult to analyze development of mechanoreceptors and to define the basis of their diversity and function. We show that the transcription factor c-Maf/c-MAF is crucial for mechanosensory function in mice and humans. The development and function of sev...

Respiration is modulated by lung mechanoreceptor feedback in vivo on a cycle-to-cycle basis. We replicated this modulation in vitro and tested four stimulus protocols to identify which of these most closely replicated in vivo responses to lung mechanoreceptor activation in mammals. We activated pulmonary vagal afferent pathways by electrical stimulation or by lung inflation, applied during expi...

Nausea and gastric dysrhythmias occur in conditions associated with gastric distension. The roles of distal and proximal gastric mechanoreceptors in these responses are unexplored. Because antral distension induces vomiting in animals and antral and fundic vagal afferent discharges differ, we hypothesized that distal gastric distension in humans leads to greater symptomatic and dysrhythmic resp...

gigas is a lethal mutant that differentiates enlarged cells, including the nucleus. This trait manifests only after the completion of the mitotic program. We have taken advantage of this phenotype to test in vivo the capacity of normal target cells to arrest the growth of mutant sensory axons. Single neuron connectivity changes have been analyzed in mosaics after horseradish peroxidase retrogra...

Possible mechanisms of arousal from respiratory stimuli include changes in PO(2), PCO(2), central respiratory drive, or respiratory mechanoreceptor activity. We sought to determine whether hypercapnia alone could induce arousal from sleep in four subjects with high (>/= C3) neurologically complete spinal cord injuries while on constant positive pressure mechanical ventilation (hence, respirator...

It has been suggested that primary afferent C-fibres that respond to innocuous tactile stimuli are important in the sensation of pleasurable touch. Although it is known that C-tactile fibres terminate in the substantia gelatinosa (lamina II) of the spinal cord, virtually all of the neurons in this region are interneurons, and currently it is not known how impulses in C-mechanoreceptors are tran...

Evidence suggests that transmission of barosensitive input from arterial baroreceptors and cardiac mechanoreceptors at nucleus tractus solitarius (NTS) neurons involves non-N-methyl-d-aspartate (NMDA) glutamate receptors, but there is a possibility that the contribution of NMDA receptors might increase during periods of increased afferent input, when enhanced neuronal depolarization could incre...