Summers Ian R, Francis Susan T, Bowtell Richard W, McGlone Francis P, Clemence Matthew
School of Physics, University of Exeter, Exeter, United Kingdom.
J Acoust Soc Am. 2009 Feb;125(2):1033-9. doi: 10.1121/1.3056399.
Using a 100-element tactile stimulator on the fingertip during functional-magnetic-resonance imaging, brain areas were identified that were selectively activated by a moving vibrotactile stimulus (the sensation of a moving line being dragged over the fingertip). Activation patterns elicited by tactile motion, contrasted to an equivalent stationary stimulus, were compared in six human subjects with those generated by a moving visual stimulus, contrasted to an equivalent stationary stimulus. Results provide further evidence for a neuroanatomical convergence of tactile-motion processing and visual-motion processing in humans. The sites of this convergence are found to lie in the middle temporal complex (hMT+V5), an area with known specialization for visual-motion processing, and in the intraparietal area of the posterior parietal cortex. In an advance on previous studies, the present study includes separate delineation of activations for moving tactile stimuli and activations for moving visual stimuli. Results suggest that the two sets of activations are not entirely collocated. Compared to the visual-motion activations, the tactile-motion activations are found to lie nearer the midline of the brain and further superior.
在功能磁共振成像期间，通过在指尖使用100元件的触觉刺激器，确定了大脑中被移动的振动触觉刺激（即一条移动的线在指尖上拖动的感觉）选择性激活的区域。在六名人类受试者中，将由触觉运动引发的激活模式（与等效的静止刺激形成对比）与由移动的视觉刺激引发的激活模式（与等效的静止刺激形成对比）进行了比较。结果为人类触觉运动处理和视觉运动处理的神经解剖学汇聚提供了进一步的证据。发现这种汇聚的部位位于颞中复合体（hMT+V5），这是一个已知专门负责视觉运动处理的区域，以及后顶叶皮质的顶内区域。与先前的研究相比，本研究进一步分别描绘了移动触觉刺激的激活和移动视觉刺激的激活。结果表明，这两组激活并不完全重叠。与视觉运动激活相比，发现触觉运动激活更靠近大脑中线且位置更高。
