Topic
Somatosensory system
About: Somatosensory system is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 6371 publications have been published within this topic receiving 316900 citations.
Papers published on a yearly basis
Papers
More filters
TL;DR: The major finding of the present study is that, as in the putamen, the activity of almost half of the neurons in GPe and GPi was related to the direction of movement, and similar proportions of cells in GP and putamen were related to static loads.
Abstract: Neurons in the arm areas of the external and internal segments of the globus pallidus (GPe and GPi) and the ventral pallidum (VP) have been examined in a visuomotor step-tracking task. This task, which was similar to that used previously to examine neurons in the arm area of the putamen, dissociated the direction of movement from the pattern of muscle activity associated with the movement. The major finding of the present study is that, as in the putamen, the activity of almost half of the neurons in GPe and GPi was related to the direction of movement. Cells with overall patterns of activity similar to muscle were rare, although many neurons had static and/or dynamic load effects which resembled those seen in muscle. Responses of neurons to load application have also been examined in this paradigm in order to determine the nature of possible somatosensory input. Short-latency “sensory” responses to load application were found in pallidum as previously in putamen, but, by contrast, they occurred somewhat later and included bidirectional responses. Similar proportions of cells in GP and putamen were related to static loads. Some VP neurons appeared to encode information about specific features of the trials, but the majority of responses were nonspecific suggesting relations to more general features of the task.
164 citations
TL;DR: It is suggested that the brain could use self representation as a reference for perception of others' body parts in parietal cortex and bimodal neurons may contribute to spatial matching between the bodies of the self and others in both action recognition and imitation.
Abstract: Parietal cortex contributes to body representations by integrating visual and somatosensory inputs. Because mirror neurons in ventral premotor and parietal cortices represent visual images of others' actions on the intrinsic motor representation of the self, this matching system may play important roles in recognizing actions performed by others. However, where and how the brain represents others' bodies and correlates self and other body representations remain unclear. We expected that a population of visuotactile neurons in simian parietal cortex would represent not only own but others' body parts. We first searched for parietal visuotactile bimodal neurons in the ventral intraparietal area and area 7b of monkeys, and then examined the activity of these neurons while monkeys were observing visual or tactile stimuli placed on the experimenter's body parts. Some bimodal neurons with receptive fields (RFs) anchored on the monkey's body exhibited visual responses matched to corresponding body parts of the experimenter, and visual RFs near that body part existed in the peripersonal space within approximately 30 cm from the body surface. These findings suggest that the brain could use self representation as a reference for perception of others' body parts in parietal cortex. These neurons may contribute to spatial matching between the bodies of the self and others in both action recognition and imitation.
164 citations
TL;DR: During studies of response properties of single units in the posterior parietal cortex of 6 awake monkeys, 168 neurons were encountered which showed anticipatory types of activity which were not correlated to eye movements, nor could they be attributed to any other body movement.
164 citations
TL;DR: The epidermis can be considered a true sensory tissue where sensor proteins and neurone-like properties enable epidermal cells to participate in the skin surface perception through interactions with nerve fibres.
Abstract: The skin is an efficient barrier which protects our bodies from the external environment but it is also an important site for the perception of various stimuli. Sensory neurones of the peripheral nervous system send many primary afferent fibres to the skin. They pass through the dermis and penetrate the basement membrane to innervate epidermal cells or remain as free endings. Nerve fibres are clearly involved in somatosensation. However, they are not always so numerous, for example in distal parts of the limbs, and some kinds of sensors can be at a distance of hundreds of micrometers from each other. The skin can detect patterns at a very fine and smaller scale, which suggests that nerve terminals are helped by epidermal sensors. All epidermal cells (keratinocytes, melanocytes, Langerhans cells and Merkel cells) express sensor proteins and neuropeptides regulating the neuro-immuno-cutaneous system. Hence, they must play a part in the epidermal sensory system. This review will consider the epidermal components of this forefront sensory system and the stimulations they perceive. The epidermis can be considered a true sensory tissue where sensor proteins and neurone-like properties enable epidermal cells to participate in the skin surface perception through interactions with nerve fibres.
164 citations
TL;DR: Clinical and neuroimaging observations of the cortical network implicated in tactile attention have identified foci in parietal somatosensory, posterior parietal, and superior frontal locations, supporting a proposal that attention to the spatial location of an object engages cortical regions responsible for the same coordinate referents used for guiding purposeful motor behavior.
Abstract: SummaryClinical and neuroimaging observations of the cortical network implicated in tactile attention have identified foci in parietal somatosensory, posterior parietal, and superior frontal locations. Tasks involving intentional hand–arm movements activate similar or nearby parietal and frontal foc
164 citations