Abstract
We used fMRI to investigate the effects of tactile co-activation on the topographic organization of the human primary somatosensory cortex (SI). Behavioral consequences of co-activation were studied in a psychophysical task assessing the mislocalization of tactile stimuli. Co-activation was applied to the index, middle and ring fingers of the right hand either synchronously or asynchronously. Cortical representations for synchronously co-activated fingers moved closer together, whereas cortical representations for asynchronously co-activated fingers became segregated. Behaviorally, this pattern coincided with an increased and reduced number of mislocalizations between synchronously and asynchronously co-activated fingers, respectively. Thus, both synchronous and asynchronous coupling of passive tactile stimulation is able to induce short-term cortical reorganization associated with functionally relevant changes.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 2669-2672 |
Number of pages | 4 |
Journal | Neuroreport |
Volume | 15 |
Issue number | 17 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 3 Dec 2004 |
Keywords
- somatosensory
- reorgani
- fMRI
- psychophysics
- somatosensory cortex
- rat barrel cortex
- tactile coactivation
- representations
- hand
- mislocalizations
- reorganization
- stimulation
- Improvement