Sensory systems

doi:10.1016/S0959-4388(00)00133-1

Current Opinion in Neurobiology

Volume 10, Issue 5, 1 October 2000, Pages 631-641

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0959-4388(00)00133-1 Get rights and content

Abstract

Our understanding of sensory systems has grown impressively in recent years as a result of intense efforts to characterize the mechanisms underlying perception. A large body of evidence has accrued regarding the processes through which sensory information at the biochemical, electrophysiological, and systems levels contributes to the conscious experience of a stimulus. Our efforts to understand the function of sensory systems have been aided by the development of new techniques, including powerful methods of molecular biology, refined short- and long-term approaches to recording from single and multiple neurons, and non-invasive neuroimaging techniques that allow us to study activity within the human brain while subjects perform a variety of cognitive tasks. In future research, the last approach is likely to form a bridge between the large body of electrophysiological knowledge acquired in animal experiments and that currently being obtained in human imaging research.

Introduction

Sensory systems perform a variety of common tasks. Each employs specialized peripheral receptors to respond to the environment, integrates the information derived simultaneously from different receptors, transmits information to central structures using a neural code, and eventually compares the result with sensations received in the past or those owing to other sensory systems. It is therefore hardly surprising that sensory systems share certain organizational principles, such as convergence and divergence, topographic projection, multiplicity of representation, parallel paths, stereotypical connectivity, and hierarchical organization.

In this anniversary issue, we selectively review four areas of sensory processing that have been intensively studied during the past decade of neuroscientific research: the transduction of sensory inputs, the nature of neural coding, the modular organization represented by parallel pathways and hierarchies of analysis, and the relation of sensory neural signals to the subjective processes of perceiving, deciding, and acting.

Section snippets

Chemical transduction

In the realm of sensory transduction, the 1990s were the decade of the nose. Years of slow but steady progress had earlier established the molecular analogy between olfactory transduction and phototransduction. Olfactory neuroscience then leapt forward following the identification of the missing piece of the puzzle, the large family of receptor molecules. In addition to clarifying the initial steps of olfactory transduction, this discovery has proven important for our understanding of

Conclusions

In this review, we have touched upon some basic principles shared by most sensory systems. A great deal of progress was made over the past ten years in the reviewed areas, but numerous questions concerning even the simplest organization principles of each modality remain await further investigation.

We do not know why so many topographically organized sensory areas are required. Why are there so many stages in the hierarchies of analysis? What is actually done at each level, and how are the

Acknowledgements

The authors thank S Smirnakis for comments on the manuscript. The original research from our laboratories is supported by National Institutes of Health grants DC00241 and DC00317 and by the Max-Planck-Gesellschaft. AJ Hudspeth is an Investigator of Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

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ReviewSensory systems

Abstract

Introduction

Section snippets

Chemical transduction

Conclusions

Acknowledgements

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Curr Opin Neurobiol

Curr Opin Neurobiol

Curr Opin Neurobiol

Curr Opin Neurobiol

Curr Opin Neurobiol

Curr Opin Neurobiol

Curr Opin Neurobiol

Curr Opin Neurobiol

Hear Res

Hear Res

Curr Opin Neurobiol

Curr Opin Neurobiol

Curr Opin Neurobiol

Curr Opin Neurobiol

Curr Opin Neurobiol

Brain Res

Brain Res

Brain Res

Curr Opin Neurobiol

Behav Brain Res

Curr Opin Neurobiol

A novel family of genes encoding putative pheromone receptors in mammals

Cell

A family of candidate taste receptors in human and mouse

Nature

Neurobiology of the Caenorhabditis elegans genome

Science

Functional expression of a mammalian odorant receptor

Science

Ultrasensitive pheromone detection by mammalian vomeronasal neurons

Nature

Reprogramming chemotaxis responses: sensory neurons define olfactory preferences in C. elegans

Cell

Gene interactions affecting mechanosensory transduction in Caenorhabditis elegans

Nature

A Drosophila mechanosensory transduction channel

Science

OSM-9, a novel protein with structural similarity to channels, is required for olfaction, mechanosensation, and olfactory adaptation in Caenorhabditis elegans

J Neurosci

Genetic interactions affecting touch sensitivity in Caenorhabditis elegans

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An intrinsic frequency limit of the cochlear amplifier

Nature

Prestin is the motor protein of cochlear outer hair cells

Nature

Limiting dynamics of high-frequency electromechanical transduction of outer hair cells

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High-frequency motility of outer hair cells and the cochlear amplifier

Science

Cochlear electrically evoked emissions modulated by mechanical transduction channels

J Neurosci

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Active hair-bundle movements can amplify a hair cell’s response to oscillatory mechanical stimuli

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Kinetics of recovery of the dark-adapted salamander rod photoresponse

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Review
Sensory systems