The electrophysiological timecourse of postural remapping of somatosensory space

Abstract

Event Abstract Back to Event The electrophysiological timecourse of postural remapping of somatosensory space Silvia Rigato1*, José Van Velzen1, Robert Davis1 and Andrew J. Bremner1 1 Goldsmiths, University of London, United Kingdom To locate a tactile stimulus in multisensory space one must both register the tactile location on the body surface, and also take account of the current posture of the relevant limbs in order to remap the relationship of the tactile location with respect to the body (e.g., Lloyd et al., 2003). Azañón and Soto-Faraco (2008) have investigated the behavioural timecourse of this remapping and found that tactile location is first coded with respect to a somatotopic frame of reference and later remapped to an external representation. This study investigated the electrophysiological correlates of this somatosensory spatial processing. Somatosensory evoked potentials (SEPs) were recorded from adults who were asked to hold two vibrotactile stimulators in their palms, in an uncrossed-hands and crossed-hands posture. On each trial (of which there were 40 in each posture) participants received a sequence of 6 vibrotactile stimuli. Statistical analyses of the SEPs revealed a late interaction between posture (crossed hands / uncrossed hands) and hemisphere with respect to the stimulated hand in anatomical coordinates (ipsilateral / contralateral) occurring at frontal sites around 500ms. The N140 component is initially of larger amplitude contralaterally rather than the ipsilaterally in both posture conditions. However, at 500ms posture influences somatosensory coding such that the SEP was of larger (negative) amplitude ipsilaterally than contralaterally when the hands were uncrossed, but larger contralaterally than ipsilaterally when the hands were crossed. These findings corroborate behavioural evidence that somatosensory stimuli are coded in anatomical coordinates before being remapped to an external frame of reference (Azañón & Soto-Faraco, 2008). Funding: Supported by European Research Council under the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) / ERC Grant agreement no. 241242. Keywords: Perception, SEP 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: Rigato S, Van Velzen J, Davis R and Bremner AJ (2011). The electrophysiological timecourse of postural remapping of somatosensory space. Conference Abstract: XI International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience (ICON XI). doi: 10.3389/conf.fnhum.2011.207.00338 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: 23 Nov 2011; Published Online: 28 Nov 2011. * Correspondence: Dr. Silvia Rigato, Goldsmiths, University of London, London, United Kingdom, srigato@essex.ac.uk 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 Silvia Rigato José Van Velzen Robert Davis Andrew J Bremner Google Silvia Rigato José Van Velzen Robert Davis Andrew J Bremner Google Scholar Silvia Rigato José Van Velzen Robert Davis Andrew J Bremner PubMed Silvia Rigato José Van Velzen Robert Davis Andrew J Bremner 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.