On-Line Receptive Field Mapping of Cutaneous Receptors

A technique for on-line receptive field mapping of cutaneous receptors is presented. A punctate stimulus is drawn over the surface of the skin in a raster scan. The area scanned is partitioned into an N ×N matrix, with each element of the matrix element representing the number of action potentials produced by the receptor when the punctate stimulus was passing through the square of skin assigned to the element. Computer graphics supply an immediate perspective, contour, or base level view of the response topography of the receptor under study. Details of the instrumentation, preliminary results, and limitations of the approach are discussed.