The receptive field of a sensory neuron is a region of space in which the presence of a stimulus will alter the firing of that neuron. The space can be on an animal's body, such as in classic, cutaneous receptive fields (an area of the animal's skin), in the space surrounding an animal, such as an area of auditory space that is fixed in a reference system based on the ears but that moves with the animal as it moves, or in a fixed location in space that is largely independent of the animal's location (Place cells). Receptive fields have been identified for neurons of the auditory system, the somatosensory system, and the visual system.
The term receptive field was first used by Sherrington (1906) to describe the area of skin from which a scratch reflex could be elicited in a dog. According to Alonso and Chen (2008) it was Hartline (1938) who applied the terms to single neurons, in this case from the retina of a frog.
The concept of receptive fields can be extended further up to the neural system; if many sensory receptors all form synapses with a single cell further up, they collectively form the receptive field of that cell. For example, the receptive field of a ganglion cell in the retina of the eye is composed of input from all of the photoreceptors which synapse with it, and a group of ganglion cells in turn forms the receptive field for a cell in the brain. This process is called convergence.
Read more about Receptive Field: Auditory System, Somatosensory System, Visual System
Famous quotes containing the words receptive and/or field:
“We tend to be so bombarded with information, and we move so quickly, that there’s a tendency to treat everything on the surface level and process things quickly. This is antithetical to the kind of openness and perception you have to have to be receptive to poetry. ... poetry seems to exist in a parallel universe outside daily life in America.”
—Rita Dove (b. 1952)
“The little toy dog is covered with dust,
But sturdy and stanch he stands;
And the little toy soldier is red with rust,
And the musket moulds in his hands.
Time was when the little toy dog was new,
And the soldier was passing fair;
And that was the time when our Little Boy Blue
Kissed them and put them there.”
—Eugene Field (1850–1895)