TY - JOUR
T1 - Neural encoding of actual and imagined touch within human posterior parietal cortex
AU - Chivukula, Srinivas
AU - Zhang, Carey Y.
AU - Aflalo, Tyson
AU - Jafari, Matiar
AU - Pejsa, Kelsie
AU - Pouratian, Nader
AU - Andersen, Richard A.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© Chivukula et al.
PY - 2021/3
Y1 - 2021/3
N2 - In the human posterior parietal cortex (PPC), single units encode high-dimensional information with partially mixed representations that enable small populations of neurons to encode many variables relevant to movement planning, execution, cognition, and perception. Here, we test whether a PPC neuronal population previously demonstrated to encode visual and motor information is similarly engaged in the somatosensory domain. We recorded neurons within the PPC of a human clinical trial participant during actual touch presentation and during a tactile imagery task. Neurons encoded actual touch at short latency with bilateral receptive fields, organized by body part, and covered all tested regions. The tactile imagery task evoked body part-specific responses that shared a neural substrate with actual touch. Our results are the first neuron-level evidence of touch encoding in human PPC and its cognitive engagement during a tactile imagery task, which may reflect semantic processing, attention, sensory anticipation, or imagined touch.
AB - In the human posterior parietal cortex (PPC), single units encode high-dimensional information with partially mixed representations that enable small populations of neurons to encode many variables relevant to movement planning, execution, cognition, and perception. Here, we test whether a PPC neuronal population previously demonstrated to encode visual and motor information is similarly engaged in the somatosensory domain. We recorded neurons within the PPC of a human clinical trial participant during actual touch presentation and during a tactile imagery task. Neurons encoded actual touch at short latency with bilateral receptive fields, organized by body part, and covered all tested regions. The tactile imagery task evoked body part-specific responses that shared a neural substrate with actual touch. Our results are the first neuron-level evidence of touch encoding in human PPC and its cognitive engagement during a tactile imagery task, which may reflect semantic processing, attention, sensory anticipation, or imagined touch.
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U2 - 10.7554/eLife.61646
DO - 10.7554/eLife.61646
M3 - Article
C2 - 33647233
AN - SCOPUS:85102323444
SN - 2050-084X
VL - 10
JO - eLife
JF - eLife
M1 - e61646
ER -