Elsevier

NeuroImage

Volume 11, Issue 3, March 2000, Pages 188-202
NeuroImage

Regular Article
fMRI of the Responses to Vibratory Stimulation of Digit Tips

https://doi.org/10.1006/nimg.2000.0541Get rights and content

Abstract

Three studies were carried out to assess the applicability of fMRI at 3.0 T to analysis of vibrotaction in humans. A novel piezoelectric device provided clean sinusoidal stimulation at 80 Hz, which was initially applied in separate runs within a scanning session to digits 2 and 5 of the left hand in eight subjects, using a birdcage RF (volume) coil. Significant clusters of activation were found in the primary somatosensory cortex (SI), the secondary somatosensory cortex (SII), subcentral gyrus, the precentral gyrus, posterior insula, posterior parietal regions (area 5), and the posterior cingulate. Digit separation in SI was possible in all subjects and the activation sites reflected the known lateral position of the representation of digit 2 relative to that of digit 5. A second study carried out in six additional subjects using a surface coil, replicated the main contralateral activation patterns detected in study one and further improved the discrimination of the digits in SI. Significant digit separation was also found in SII and in the posterior insula. A third study to investigate the frequency dependence of the response focused on the effect of an increase in vibrotactile frequency from 30 to 80 Hz, with both frequencies applied to digit 2 during the same scanning session in four new subjects. A significant increase in the number of pixels activated within both SII and the posterior insula was found, while the number of pixels activated in SI declined. No significant change in signal intensity with frequencies was found in any of the activated areas.

References (70)

  • J. Suk et al.

    Anatomical localization revealed by MEG recordings of the human somatosensory system

    Electroenceph. Clin. Neurophysiol.

    (1991)
  • A.K. Affifi et al.

    Functional Neuroanatomy, Text and Atlas

    (1998)
  • T. Allison et al.

    Human cortical potentials evoked by stimulation of the median nerve, I, Cytoarchitectonic areas generating short latency activity

    J. Neurophysiol.

    (1989)
  • T. Allison et al.

    Human cortical potentials evoked by stimulation of the median nerve. II. Cytoarchitectonic areas generating long-latency activity

    J. Neurophysiol.

    (1989)
  • T. Allison et al.

    Potentials evoked in human and monkey cerebral cortex by stimulation of the median nerve. A review of scalp and intracranial recordings

    Brain

    (1991)
  • C. Baumgartner et al.

    Neuromagnetic investigation of somatotopy of human hand somatosensory cortex

    Exp. Brain Res.

    (1991)
  • A. Bodegárd et al.

    Somatosensory areas activated due to moving stimuli on the skin: A study using cytoarchitectonic mapping and PET

    Neuroimage

    (1998)
  • S.J. Bolanowski et al.

    Four channels mediate the mechanical aspects of touch

    J. Acoust. Soc. Am.

    (1988)
  • H. Burton et al.

    Second somatic sensory cortical area (SII) in aprosimian primate, Galago Crassicaudatus

    J. Comp. Neurol.

    (1986)
  • H. Burton et al.

    Tactile-vibration-activated foci in the insular and parietal-opercular cortex studied with positron emission tomography: mapping the second somatosensory area in humans

    Somatosens. Mot. Res.

    (1993)
  • H. Burton et al.

    Multiple foci in parietal and frontal cortex activated by rubbing embossed grating patterns across fingerpads: A positron emission tomography study in humans

    Cerebral Cortex

    (1997)
  • G.J. Carman et al.

    Computational methods for reconstructing and unfolding the cerebral cortex

    Cerebral Cortex

    (1995)
  • E. Disbrow et al.

    Somatotopic organization in the lateral sulcus in humans

    Neuroimage

    (1998)
  • G.H. Duncan et al.

    Dose- and time-dependent effects of ketamine on S1 neurons with cutaneous receptive fields

    J. Neurophysiol.

    (1982)
  • H.M. Duvernoy

    The Human Brain: Surface, Blood Supply and Three Dimensional Sectional Anatomy

    (1999)
  • D.G. Ferrington et al.

    Differential contributions to coding of cutaneous vibratory information by cortical somatosensory areas I and II

    J. Neurophysiol.

    (1980)
  • P.T. Fox et al.

    Mapping human somatosensory cortex with positron emission tomography

    J. Neurosurg.

    (1987)
  • K.J. Friston et al.

    Analysis of functional MRI time series

    Hum. Brain Mapp.

    (1994)
  • A.K. Goble et al.

    Vibrotactile adaptation enhances amplitude discrimination

    J. Acoust. Soc. Am.

    (1993)
  • A.K. Goble et al.

    Vibrotactile adaptation enhances frequency discrimination

    J. Acoust. Soc. Am.

    (1994)
  • G.D. Goff

    Differential discrimination of frequency of cutaneous mechanical vibration

    J. Exp. Psychol.

    (1967)
  • G.M. Goodwin et al.

    The contribution of muscle afferents to kinesthesia shown by vibration induced illusions of movements and by the effect of paralysing joint afferents

    Brain

    (1972)
  • R. Hari et al.

    Functional organization of the human first and second somatosensory cortices: A neuromagnetic study

    Eur. J. Neurosci.

    (1993)
  • G. Harrington et al.

    Somatosensory response to vibrotactile stimuli in fMRI

    Neuroimage

    (1998)
  • Cited by (0)

    View full text