Biomedical subjects

Petr Lánský

Publications and source records attributed to Petr Lánský.

12 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2006

Classification of stationary neuronal activity according to its information rate.

We propose a measure of the information rate of a single stationary neuronal activity with respect to the state of null information. The measure is based on the Kullback-Leibler distance between two interspike interval distributions. The selected activity is compared with the Poisson model with the same mean firing frequency. We show that the approach is related to the notion of specific information and that the method allows us to judge the relative encoding efficiency. Two classes of neuronal activity models are classified according to their information rate: the renewal process models and the first-order Markov chain models. It has been proven that information can be transmitted changing neither the spike rate nor the coefficient of variation and that the increase in serial correlation does not necessarily increase the information gain. We employ the simple, but powerful, Vasicek's estimator of differential entropy to illustrate an application on the experimental data coming from olfactory sensory neurons of rats.

Action Potentials↗

PubMed2005

Optimum signal in a simple neuronal model with signal-dependent noise.

How does the information about a signal in neural threshold crossings depend on the noise acting upon it? Two models are explored, a binary McCulloch and Pitts (threshold exceedance) model and a model of waiting time to exceedance--a discrete-time version of interspike intervals. If noise grows linearly with the signal, we find the best identification of the signal in terms of the Fisher information is for signals that do not reach the threshold in the absence of noise. Identification attains the same precision under weak and strong signals, but the coding range decreases at both extremes of signal level. We compare the results obtained for Fisher information with those using related first and second moment measures. The maximum obtainable information is plotted as a function of the ratio of noise to signal.

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PubMed2005

Optimal signal estimation in neuronal models.

We study optimal estimation of a signal in parametric neuronal models on the basis of interspike interval data. Fisher information is the inverse asymptotic variance of the best estimator. Its dependence on the parameter value indicates accuracy of estimation. Our models assume that the input signal is estimated from neuronal output interspike interval data where the frequency transfer function is sigmoidal. If the coefficient of variation of the interspike interval is constant with respect to the signal, the Fisher information is unimodal, and its maximum for the most estimable signal can be found. We obtain a general result and compare the signal producing maximal Fisher information with the inflection point of the sigmoidal transfer function in several basic neuronal models.

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PubMed2004

A stochastic differential equation model for drug dissolution and its parameters.

A stochastic differential equation describing the process of drug dissolution is presented. This approach generalizes the classical deterministic first-order model. Instead of assuming a constant fractional dissolution rate, it is considered here that the rate is corrupted by a white noise. The half-dissolution time is investigated for the model. The maximum likelihood and Bayes methods for the estimation of the parameters of the model are developed. The method is illustrated on experimental data. As expected, due to the nonlinear relationship between the fractional dissolution rate and the dissolution time, the estimates of the dissolution rate obtained from this stochastic model are systematically lower than the rate calculated from the deterministic model.

Algorithms↗

PubMed2004

Mean instantaneous firing frequency is always higher than the firing rate.

Frequency coding is considered one of the most common coding strategies employed by neural systems. This fact leads, in experiments as well as theoretical studies, to construction of so-called transfer functions, where the output firing frequency is plotted against the input intensity. The term "firing frequency" can be understood differently in different contexts. Basically, it means that the number of spikes over an interval of preselected length is counted and then divided by the length of the interval, but due to the obvious limitations, the length of observation cannot be arbitrarily long. Then firing frequency is defined as reciprocal to the mean interspike interval. In parallel, an instantaneous firing frequency can be defined as reciprocal to the length of current interspike interval, and by taking a mean of these, the definition can be extended to introduce the mean instantaneous firing frequency. All of these definitions of firing frequency are compared in an effort to contribute to a better understanding of the input-output properties of a neuron.

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PubMed2003

Classification of dissolution profiles in terms of fractional dissolution rate and a novel measure of heterogeneity.

Dissolution profiles are classified in accordance with the shape of fractional dissolution rate function. This function is constant in time for the classical first-order model and, in this case, the dissolution is described by a monoexponential function. Therefore, any deviation of the fractional dissolution rate from the constant level suggests the presence of different (nonlinear/nonhomogenous) mechanisms in the dissolution process. The shapes of the fractional dissolution rate depend on the type of the model of dissolution; thus, classification with respect to this function is proposed as a tool for model selection. The Kullback-Leibler information distance is proposed for measuring similarity between two different drug dissolution profiles. The method is applied mainly to compare the first-order model, which characterizes a homogenous dosage form, with other common descriptors of dissolution and with experimental data.

Chemistry, Pharmaceutical↗

PubMed2003

Role of heterogeneity in deterministic models of drug dissolution and their statistical characteristics.

Dissolution of drugs is one of the crucial factors determining their global action in a body, and thus for any new solid dosage form its dissolution characteristics have to be established. A variety of empirical and semi-empirical models for drug dissolution is reviewed in this article. Their properties are investigated, the parameters are discussed and the role of drug heterogeneity is studied.

Humans↗

PubMed2003

Relation between stimulus and response in frog olfactory receptor neurons in vivo.

The spiking activity of receptor neurons was recorded extracellularly in the frog olfactory epithelium in response to four odourants applied at precisely controlled concentrations. A set of criteria was formulated to define the spikes in the response. Four variables - latency, duration, number of interspike intervals and frequency - were determined to quantify the responses. They were studied at the single neuron, neuron population and ciliary membrane levels. The dose-response curves were determined using specific functions and their characteristics were evaluated. The characteristic molar concentrations at threshold or at maximum duration and the characteristics of variables, e.g. minimum latency or maximum frequency, have asymmetric histograms with peaks close to the origin and long tails. Dynamic ranges have even more asymmetric histograms, so that a significant fraction of neurons presents a much wider range than their one-decade peak. From these histograms, response properties of the whole neuron population can be inferred. In general, location along the concentration axis (thresholds), width (dynamic ranges) and heights of dose-response curves are independent, which explains the diversity of curves, prevents their global categorization and supports the qualitative coding of odourants. No evidence for odourant-independent types of neurons was found. Finally, receptor activation and ciliary membrane conductance were reconstructed in the framework of a model based on firing data, known mucus biochemical and neuron morpho-electrical characteristics. It is in agreement with independent determinations of Kd of odourant-receptor interaction and of conductance characteristics, and describes their statistical distributions in the neuron population.

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PubMed2003

Extracellular transduction events under pulsed stimulation in moth olfactory sensilla.

In natural conditions, pheromones released continuously by female moths are broken in discontinuous clumps and filaments. These discontinuities are perceived by flying male moths as periodic variations in the concentration of the stimulus, which have been shown to be essential for location of females. We study analytically and numerically the evolution in time of the activated pheromone-receptor (signaling) complex in response to periodic pulses of pheromone. The 13-reaction model considered takes into account the transport of pheromone molecules by pheromone binding proteins (PBP), their enzymatic deactivation in the perireceptor space and their interaction with receptors at the dendritic membrane of neurons in Antheraea polyphemus sensitive to the main pheromone component. The time-averaged and periodic properties of the temporal evolution of the signaling complex are presented, in both transient and steady states. The same time-averaged response is shown to result from many different pulse trains and to depend hyperbolically on the time-averaged pheromone concentration in air. The dependency of the amplitude of the oscillations of the signaling complex on pulse characteristics, especially frequency, suggests that the model can account for the ability of the studied type of neuron to resolve repetitive pulses up to 2 Hz, as experimentally observed. Modifications of the model for resolving pulses up to 10 Hz, as found in other neuron types sensitive to the minor pheromone components, are discussed.

Animals↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Stochastic pulse stimulation in chemoreceptors and its properties.

Orientation towards food and mate, especially in insects, is an olfactory-controlled behavior which relies on the detection of small amounts of odorant molecules delivered in turbulent atmospheric conditions, so that randomness in magnitude and time is a major feature of the natural stimulus. The effect of random delivery on the initial step of olfactory transduction, the formation of the receptor-ligand complex, is analyzed in the case of the moth pheromonal system. Two types of randomness are compared, Gaussian (regular) and exponential (irregular). The influence of noise is quantified either with the maxima of the receptor-ligand complex, or with the times at which the concentration of complex crosses a given threshold level. It is shown that the stochastic features of the stimulus helps its detection and that the exponential distribution appears not only as a better description of the natural stimulus, but also as the most efficient from a biological point of view.

Animals↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Coding of periodic pulse stimulation in chemoreceptors.

In natural conditions odorants released continuously by animals and plants are broken in discontinuous clumps and filaments. In the case of flying insects these discontinuities are perceived as periodic variations in the concentration of the stimulus. This periodicity has been shown to be essential to orientation and location of mate and food. We study analytically and numerically a model of the receptor-ligand interaction that takes place in the receptor neurons. We show that this model can account quantitatively for the range of optimum stimulus frequencies measured experimentally in the sex-pheromone system of moths. The results obtained suggest that the rate constants characterising the pheromone-receptor interaction are optimally adapted to the temporal characteristics of the signal it perceives.

Chemoreceptor Cells↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Interspike interval statistics in the Ornstein-Uhlenbeck neuronal model with signal-dependent noise.

The stochastic leaky integrate-and-fire (LIF) continuous model is studied under the condition that the amplitude of noise is a function of the input signal. The coefficient of variation (CV) of interspike intervals (ISIs) is investigated for different types of dependencies between the noise and the signal. Finally, we present the CV and the ISI density resulting from the special choice of parameters of the input that gave rise to a contra-intuitive behavior of the transfer function in Lánský and Sacerdote [Phys. Lett. A 285 (2001) 132].

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