Cortical receptive fields
In this part of the simulation you will "record" the neural activity from neurons in the primary somatosensory cortex, with receptive fields along the right arm. Choose which electrode you wish to record from first by clicking on one of the three semi-transparent electrodes on the brain. Your mission is to find and measure the diameter of the receptive fields for each of the three neurons.
Click on the arm to simulate touching the arm at that location for one second. The neural response for each click will appear on the oscilloscope, and if a click falls within the receptive field for the neuron you are currently recording from, a coloured dot will appear at that spot. Once you've found the receptive fields, make sure to explore their borders so that you can measure their size by dragging the ruler on the bottom left of the hand.
Please enter the appropriate size for each neuron's receptive field on the table below. What relationship do you observe between the location of the receptive fields on the arm and their size?
| Neuron | Diameter (cm) |
|---|---|
| 1 | |
| 2 | |
| 3 |