Somatosensory system

About: Somatosensory system is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 6371 publications have been published within this topic receiving 316900 citations.

Neuroanatomy: Text and Atlas

Abstract: 1. Organization of the Central Nervous System 2. Structural and Functional Organization of the Central Nervous System 3. Vasculature of the Central Nervous System and Cerebrospinal Fluid 4. Somatic Sensation: Spinal Mechanosensory System 5. Somatic Sensation: Spinal systems for Pain, Temperature, and Itch 6. Somatic Sensation: Trigeminal and Viscerosensory Systems 7. The Visual System 8. The Auditory System 9. Chemical Senses: Taste and Smell 10. Descending Motor Pathways and the Motor Functions of the Spinal Cord 11. Cranial Nerve Motor Nuclei and Brain Stem Motor Functions 12. The Vestibular and Oculomotor Systems 13. The Cerebellum 14. The Basal Ganglia 15. The Hypothalamus and Regulation of Bodily Functions 16. The Limbic System and Cerebral Circuits for Emotions, Learning, and Memory

Somatosensory Changes after Penetrating Brain Wounds in Man

Abstract: input and beginning glimpses into the waking brain's methods for sorting and processing sensory' events, these new approaches may make it unnecessary to engage in arguments about whether pain is "sensation or feeling." We are indeed outgrowing the "Cartesian neurophysiology" which Buytendijk criticizes. We can also outgrow his Cartesian dismissal of psychogenic pain as "imaginary," and hopefully can build a way of discussing phenomena like pain, anxiety, memory or attention without sterile mind-matter disputes or retreat to metaphysical speculation. FRANK ERVIN, M.D.

Potential of visual cortex to develop an array of functional units unique to somatosensory cortex

Abstract: The identification of specialized areas in the mammalian neocortex, such as the primary visual or somatosensory cortex, is based on distinctions in architectural and functional features. The extent to which certain features that distinguish neocortical areas in rats are prespecified or emerge as a result of epigenetic interactions was investigated. Late embryonic visual cortex transplanted to neonatal somatosensory cortex was later assayed for "barrels," anatomically identified functional units unique to somatosensory cortex, and for boundaries of glycoconjugated molecules associated with barrels. Barrels and boundaries form in transplanted visual cortex and are organized in an array that resembles the pattern in the normal barrelfield. These findings show that different regions of the developing neocortex have similar potentials to differentiate features that distinguish neocortical areas and contribute to their unique functional organizations.

Visual-vestibular interactive responses in the macaque ventral intraparietal area (VIP).

Abstract: Self-motion detection requires the interaction of a number of sensory systems for correct perceptual interpretation of a given movement and an eventual motor response. Parietal cortical areas are thought to play an important role in this function, and we have thus studied the encoding of multimodal signals and their spatiotemporal interactions in the ventral intraparietal area of macaque monkeys. Thereby, we have identified for the first time the presence of vestibular sensory input to this area and described its interaction with somatosensory and visual signals, via extracellular single-cell recordings in awake head-fixed animals. Visual responses were driven by large field stimuli that simulated either backward or forward self-motion (contraction or expansion stimuli, respectively), or movement in the frontoparallel plane (visual increments moving simultaneously in the same direction). While the dominant sensory modality in most neurons was visual, about one third of all recorded neurons responded to horizontal rotation. These vestibular responses were typically in phase with head velocity, but in some cases they could signal acceleration or even showed integration to position. The associated visual responses were always codirectional with the vestibular on-direction, i.e. noncomplementary. Somatosensory responses were in register with the visual preferred direction, either in the same or in the opposite direction, thus signalling translation or rotation in the horizontal plane. These results, taken together with data on responses to optic flow stimuli obtained in a parallel study, strongly suggest an involvement of area VIP in the analysis and the encoding of self-motion.

Early experience of tactile stimulation influences organization of somatic sensory cortex

Abstract: Visual experience is essential for the establishment of the cerebral cortical circuitry that allows normal binocular vision. For example, the pattern of right-eye, left-eye dominance columns is permanently altered by simply closing an eye of a young primate1. A critical issue is whether environmental factors also influence the development of other cortical sensory areas. In the present experiments we manipulated the tactile experience of young rats by depriving them of the sensory information that is normally provided by their large facial whiskers. Electrophysiological analyses showed that simply trimming the whiskers from the day of birth results in pronounced abnormalities in the response properties of single neurons in the adult somatic sensory cortex. Thus functional plasticity in response to early experience appears to be a fundamental aspect of cortical development.