How sensory maps could enhance resolution through ordered arrangements of broadly tuned receivers.

We investigate the properties of a model recently introduced by Heiligenberg (1987) for an array of sensors tuned to progressively higher ranges of a continuous stimulus variable x and with bell shaped single response curve with width parameter d. The main result is that as d increases, the overall response rapidly becomes almost linear in a very smooth and robust fashion. Biological relevance and implications of the model and of its extensions are discussed together with a few examples.