| Abstrakt: |
A computer program, written in BASIC and implemented in a time-sharing environment, allows students to explore the response properties of simulated VIIIth-nerve neurons. The program has proven useful in undergraduate laboratory instruction. It allows rapid data collection and requires students to confront problems of analyzing and interpreting electrophysiological data. Thus, students can develop analytic skills without the technical competence, time-consuming effort, and expense of actual electrophysiological experimentation. Students must select the parameters (frequency and amplitude) and determine the number of repetitions for each stimulus. The program then prints the number of neural impulses elicited by each tone burst. The 12 prototype neurons are characterized by (1) best frequency, (2) threshold, (3) shape of tuning curve, (4) firing rate-vs-stimulus amplitude relations, and (5) mean and variance of spontaneous activity. After several hours of data collection most students are able to plot tuning curves and discuss how each neuron responds to different amplitude stimuli; they are somewhat less successful in describing how these properties could account for psychophysical data. Student evaluations have shown this to be the most popular laboratory of the course, since the interaction task requires rapid development of hypotheses and provides immediate feedback. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
