What is cosine tuning in neuroscience?

[quicksilver123]

Hi,

I've been listening to the podcast "Neuroscientists Talk Shop" and heard some participants repeatedly refer to something called "cosine tuning" in relation to predicting the efferent reactions to certain clusters of neurons (e.g. a simian moving in a certain way).
[sorry if that's obtusely phrased]

Could someone break down the concept of cosine tuning?

 

[quicksilver123]

Never mind. Found it.

first read: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neural_coding

then: http://www.plosbiology.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pbio.0040092

 

[quicksilver123]

and this beast here:

http://homes.cs.washington.edu/~todorov/papers/cosine.pdf

 

[Hush]

Excellent! Do you concur with the research and the researchers? Is their SSI cosine tuning a solution? My understanding comes from the physiology of hearing. Is your interest stemming from one of the other senses?
Thank you for the links.