Pizá Álvaro G, Farfán Fernando D, Albarracín Ana L, Ruiz Gabriel A, Felice Carmelo J
Instituto Superior de Investigaciones Biológicas (INSIBIO), CONICET - UNT, and Departamento de Bioingeniería, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Tecnología, UNT Av. Independencia 1800, 4000 San Miguel de Tucumán, Argentina; Laboratorio de Medios e Interfases (LAMEIN), Universidad Nacional de Tucumán, Argentina.
Laboratorio de Medios e Interfases (LAMEIN), Universidad Nacional de Tucumán, Argentina.
J Neurosci Methods. 2014 Aug 15;233:78-88. doi: 10.1016/j.jneumeth.2014.06.007. Epub 2014 Jun 14.
Often, the first problem that the neuroscientist must face is to determine if a specific stimulus set applied to biological system produces specific, precise and well differentiated responses.
In the present study we have proposed four discriminability measures to evaluate the feasibility of differentiating experimental conditions: information measures based on information theory, percentage overlap based on Linacre method, Bhattacharyya distance and univariate standard distance. All discriminability measures were evaluated on experimental protocols related to vibrissal tactile discrimination.
Time-frequency features were extracted from afferent discharges and then, pairwise comparisons were realized by using the proposed discriminability measures. Our results reveal the existence of time-frequency patterns which allows differentiating of sweep conditions from multifiber recordings.
Currently, statistical methods used to justify significant differences in experimental conditions have rigorous criteria that must be met for correct validation of results. Discriminability measures proposed here are robust and can be adjusted to different experimental conditions (time series, repeated measures, specific variables and other).
Discriminability measures allowed determining the time intervals where two sweep situations have the highest probability to be differentiated from each other. High discriminability percentages were observed into protraction phase, although to a lesser degree, it was also observed in retraction phase. It was demonstrated that sensibility of discriminability measures are different. This revealing a greater ability to highlight percentage changes of pairwise comparisons. Finally, the methods here proposed can be adapted to other features of biological responses.
神经科学家经常面临的首要问题是确定施加于生物系统的特定刺激集是否会产生特定、精确且差异明显的反应。
在本研究中，我们提出了四种可辨别性度量方法来评估区分实验条件的可行性：基于信息论的信息度量、基于林纳克方法的百分比重叠、巴氏距离和单变量标准距离。所有可辨别性度量方法都在与触须触觉辨别相关的实验方案上进行了评估。
从传入放电中提取时频特征，然后使用所提出的可辨别性度量方法进行成对比较。我们的结果揭示了时频模式的存在，这使得能够从多纤维记录中区分扫描条件。
目前，用于证明实验条件存在显著差异的统计方法有严格的标准，结果的正确验证必须满足这些标准。这里提出的可辨别性度量方法具有鲁棒性，可以根据不同的实验条件（时间序列、重复测量、特定变量等）进行调整。
可辨别性度量方法能够确定两种扫描情况最有可能相互区分的时间间隔。在伸展阶段观察到较高的可辨别百分比，尽管在较小程度上，在收缩阶段也观察到了。结果表明，可辨别性度量方法的敏感性不同。这揭示了突出成对比较百分比变化的更大能力。最后，这里提出的方法可以适用于生物反应的其他特征。
