Multiple representations of touch

Abstract

Event Abstract Back to Event Multiple representations of touch Christoph Braun1*, Luigi Tamè2, Christos Papadelis1, Alessandro Farnè2 and Francesco Pavani2 1 CIMeC Center for Mind/Brain Sciences, University of Trento, Italy 2 INSERM U1028, CNRS UMR5292, Lyon Neuroscience Research Centre, France Touch is represented in multiple reference frames in the brain. On an early level of processing, tactile input is coded in a somatotopic frame preserving the neighborhood relation of adjacent skin areas. On higher levels, touch is represented in references frames related to limb function, body orientation and external space. The goal of the present study was to infer the anatomical substrate for different reference frames using functional neuroimaging. Assuming that the processing of a stimulus is affected by a distracter stimulus as long as they share a common representation, the brain areas for different reference frames can be identified by their interaction. Here, left index finger served as target location. Tactile distracters were applied to the left and right middle and index fingers with a stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) of 0, 25 and 125 ms. Activation of left and right primary (SI) and secondary somatosensory (SII) cortex could be identified using neuromagnetic source imaging. On the level of SI, no effect of distracters applied to the other hand was found. Yet, SII responses to the target stimulus were diminished by stimulating fingers of the other hand. The reduction was stronger for stimulation of the non-homolog than the homolog finger. Increasing SOAs between distracters and target stimuli revealed that SII responses to the target were delayed by the previously applied distracter only for the SOA of 125 ms. Results indicate that on the level of SII, there exist shared representations integrating information from homologous regions of the left and right half of the body implying a common reference frame for homolog limbs. Effects of SOA suggest that SII is involved in the analysis of the temporal structure of the stimuli. Keywords: Sensation, SII Conference: XI International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience (ICON XI), Palma, Mallorca, Spain, 25 Sep - 29 Sep, 2011. Presentation Type: Poster Presentation Topic: Poster Sessions: Neurophysiology of Sensation and Perception Citation: Braun C, Tamè L, Papadelis C, Farnè A and Pavani F (2011). Multiple representations of touch. Conference Abstract: XI International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience (ICON XI). doi: 10.3389/conf.fnhum.2011.207.00479 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 25 Nov 2011; Published Online: 28 Nov 2011. * Correspondence: Dr. Christoph Braun, CIMeC Center for Mind/Brain Sciences, University of Trento, Trento, Italy, christoph.braun@uni-tuebingen.de Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Christoph Braun Luigi Tamè Christos Papadelis Alessandro Farnè Francesco Pavani Google Christoph Braun Luigi Tamè Christos Papadelis Alessandro Farnè Francesco Pavani Google Scholar Christoph Braun Luigi Tamè Christos Papadelis Alessandro Farnè Francesco Pavani PubMed Christoph Braun Luigi Tamè Christos Papadelis Alessandro Farnè Francesco Pavani Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.