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scientificComputing/projects/project_photoreceptor/photoreceptor.tex

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\documentclass[a4paper,12pt,pdftex]{exam}
\newcommand{\ptitle}{Photoreceptor activity}
\input{../header.tex}
\firstpagefooter{Supervisor: Jan Grewe}{phone: 29 74588}%
{email: jan.grewe@uni-tuebingen.de}
\begin{document}
\input{../instructions.tex}
%%%%%%%%%%%%%% Questions %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
\section*{Light responses of an insect photoreceptor.}
In this project you will analyze data from intracellular recordings of
a fly R\,1--6 photoreceptor. These cells show graded membrane
potential changes in response to a light stimulus. The membrane
potential of the photoreceptor was recorded while the cell was
stimulated with a light stimulus.
\begin{questions}
\question{} The accompanying dataset (photoreceptor\_data.zip)
contains seven mat files. Each of these holds the data from one
stimulus intensity and contains therr variables. (i)
\textit{voltage} a matrix with the recorded membrane potential from
10 consecutive trials, (ii) \textit{time} a matrix with the
time-axis for each trial, and (iii) \textit{trace\_meta} a structure
that stores several metadata including the \emph{amplitude} value
that is the voltage used to drive the light stimulus. (Note that
this voltage is only a proxy for the true light intensity. Twice the
voltage does not lead to twice the light intensity. Within this
project, however, you can treat it as if it was the intensity.)
\begin{parts}
\part Create a plot of the raw data. For each light intensity plot
the individual responses as a function of time.
\part Intracellular recordings often suffer from drifts in the resting
potential. This leads to a large variability in the responses which is technical and not a cellular
property. To compensate for such drifts trials are aligned to the
resting potential before stimulus onset.
Replot the data but with the compensation for the drifts.
\part Instead of plotting individual responses plot the average response.
This plot should also depict the across-trial variability in an appropriate way.
\part You will notice that the responses have three main parts, (i) a
pre-stimulus phase, (ii) the phase in which the light was on, and (iii)
a post-stimulus phase. Create an characteristic curve that
plots the response strength as a function of the stimulus
intensity for the ``onset'' and the ``steady state''
phases of the light response.
\part The light switches on at time zero. Estimate the delay
between stimulus and response.
\part Analyze the across trial variability in the ``onset'' and
``steady state''. Check for statistically significant differences.
\part The membrane potential shows some fluctuations (noise)
compare the noise before stimulus onset and in the steady state
phase of the response.
\part (optional) You may also analyze the post-stimulus response
in some more detail.
\end{parts}
\end{questions}
\end{document}