Electrocorticography Evidence of Tactile Responses in Visual Cortices
Gaglianese, Anna; Branco, Mariana P; Groen, Iris I A; Benson, Noah C; Vansteensel, Mariska J; Murray, Micah M; Petridou, Natalia; Ramsey, Nick F
(2020) Brain Topography, volume 33, issue 5, pp. 559 - 570
(Article)
Abstract
There is ongoing debate regarding the extent to which human cortices are specialized for processing a given sensory input versus a given type of information, independently of the sensory source. Many neuroimaging and electrophysiological studies have reported that primary and extrastriate visual cortices respond to tactile and auditory stimulation, in
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addition to visual inputs, suggesting these cortices are intrinsically multisensory. In particular for tactile responses, few studies have proven neuronal processes in visual cortex in humans. Here, we assessed tactile responses in both low-level and extrastriate visual cortices using electrocorticography recordings in a human participant. Specifically, we observed significant spectral power increases in the high frequency band (30-100 Hz) in response to tactile stimuli, reportedly associated with spiking neuronal activity, in both low-level visual cortex (i.e. V2) and in the anterior part of the lateral occipital-temporal cortex. These sites were both involved in processing tactile information and responsive to visual stimulation. More generally, the present results add to a mounting literature in support of task-sensitive and sensory-independent mechanisms underlying functions like spatial, motion, and self-processing in the brain and extending from higher-level as well as to low-level cortices.
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Keywords: ECoG, High frequency band, Multisensory, Tactile, Clinical Neurology, Neurology, Radiological and Ultrasound Technology, Radiology Nuclear Medicine and imaging, Anatomy, Journal Article
ISSN: 0896-0267
Publisher: Kluwer Academic/Human Sciences Press Inc.
Note: Funding Information: This work was supported by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO), Vidi Grant number 13339 (N.P.), the European Research Council (ERC) Advanced ?iConnect? project, number 320708 (N.F.R.), the National Institute of Mental Health of the National Institutes of Health under award number R01MH111417 (N.P.), and the Swiss National Science Foundation (169206 to M.M.M.). The authors would like to thank Alessio Fracasso for collecting the visual task data, Sara Stampacchia for useful discussion and Frans S.S. Leijten, Cyrille H. Ferrier, Tineke Gebbink and the clinical neurophysiology team for the experimental environment and their help in collecting the data, and Jonathan Winawer for help with relating electrode locations to various brain atlases. Funding Information: This work was supported by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO), Vidi Grant number 13339 (N.P.), the European Research Council (ERC) Advanced ‘iConnect’ project, number 320708 (N.F.R.), the National Institute of Mental Health of the National Institutes of Health under award number R01MH111417 (N.P.), and the Swiss National Science Foundation (169206 to M.M.M.). The authors would like to thank Alessio Fracasso for collecting the visual task data, Sara Stampacchia for useful discussion and Frans S.S. Leijten, Cyrille H. Ferrier, Tineke Gebbink and the clinical neurophysiology team for the experimental environment and their help in collecting the data, and Jonathan Winawer for help with relating electrode locations to various brain atlases. Publisher Copyright: © 2020, The Author(s).
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