Neural coding and the basic law of psychophysics. Export

@article{2002Johnson, abstract = {There have been three main ideas about the basic law of psychophysics. In 1860, Fechner used Weber's law to infer that the subjective sense of intensity is related to the physical intensity of a stimulus by a logarithmic function (the Weber-Fechner law). A hundred years later, Stevens refuted Fechner's law by showing that direct reports of subjective intensity are related to the physical intensity of stimuli by a power law. MacKay soon showed, however, that the logarithmic and power laws are indistinguishable without examining the underlying neural mechanisms. Mountcastle and his colleagues did so, and, on the basis of transducer functions obeying power laws, inferred that subjective intensity must be related linearly to the neural coding measure on which it is based. In this review, we discuss these issues and we review a series of studies aimed at the neural mechanisms of a very complex form of subjective experience-the experience of roughness produced by a textured surface. The results, which are independent of any assumptions about the form of the psychophysical law, support the idea that the basic law of psychophysics is linearity between subjective experience and the neural activity on which it is based.}, address = {Krieger Mind/Brain Institute and Neuroscience Department, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland 21218, USA. kenneth.johnson@jhu.edu}, author = {Johnson, K. O. and Hsiao, S. S. and Yoshioka, T.}, citeulike-article-id = {126462}, citeulike-linkout-0 = {http://view.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11954556}, citeulike-linkout-1 = {http://www.hubmed.org/display.cgi?uids=11954556}, issn = {1073-8584}, journal = {Neuroscientist}, keywords = {fechner, law, psychophysics, review, weber}, month = {April}, number = {2}, pages = {111--121}, posted-at = {2009-04-23 17:52:34}, priority = {2}, title = {Neural coding and the basic law of psychophysics.}, url = {http://view.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11954556}, volume = {8}, year = {2002} }

TY - JOUR ID - 2002Johnson L3 - citeulike-article-id:126462 N2 - There have been three main ideas about the basic law of psychophysics. In 1860, Fechner used Weber's law to infer that the subjective sense of intensity is related to the physical intensity of a stimulus by a logarithmic function (the Weber-Fechner law). A hundred years later, Stevens refuted Fechner's law by showing that direct reports of subjective intensity are related to the physical intensity of stimuli by a power law. MacKay soon showed, however, that the logarithmic and power laws are indistinguishable without examining the underlying neural mechanisms. Mountcastle and his colleagues did so, and, on the basis of transducer functions obeying power laws, inferred that subjective intensity must be related linearly to the neural coding measure on which it is based. In this review, we discuss these issues and we review a series of studies aimed at the neural mechanisms of a very complex form of subjective experience-the experience of roughness produced by a textured surface. The results, which are independent of any assumptions about the form of the psychophysical law, support the idea that the basic law of psychophysics is linearity between subjective experience and the neural activity on which it is based. IS - 2 JF - Neuroscientist SN - 1073-8584 AD - Krieger Mind/Brain Institute and Neuroscience Department, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland 21218, USA. kenneth.johnson@jhu.edu EP - 121 TI - Neural coding and the basic law of psychophysics. VL - 8 SP - 111 KW - fechner KW - law KW - psychophysics KW - review KW - weber AU - Johnson, KO AU - Hsiao, SS AU - Yoshioka, T PY - 2002/04// UR - http://view.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11954556 ER -