Gogulski Juha, Boldt Robert, Savolainen Petri, Guzmán-López Jessica, Carlson Synnöve, Pertovaara Antti
Institute of Biomedicine/Physiology, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland BioMag Laboratory, HUS Medical Imaging Center, Helsinki University Central Hospital, Helsinki, Finland.
Institute of Biomedicine/Physiology, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland Brain Research Unit, O.V. Lounasmaa Laboratory AMI Centre, Aalto Neuroimaging, Aalto University School of Science, Espoo, Finland.
Cereb Cortex. 2015 Jan;25(1):161-6. doi: 10.1093/cercor/bht211. Epub 2013 Aug 19.
It has proven difficult to separate functional areas in the prefrontal cortex (PFC), an area implicated in attention, memory, and distraction handling. Here, we assessed in healthy human subjects whether PFC subareas have different roles in top-down regulation of sensory functions by determining how the neural links between the PFC and the primary somatosensory cortex (S1) modulate tactile perceptions. Anatomical connections between the S1 representation area of the cutaneous test site and the PFC were determined using probabilistic tractography. Single-pulse navigated transcranial magnetic stimulation of the middle frontal gyrus-S1 link, but not that of the superior frontal gyrus-S1 link, impaired the ability to discriminate between single and twin tactile pulses. The impairment occurred within a restricted time window and skin area. The spatially and temporally organized top-down control of tactile discrimination through a segregated PFC-S1 pathway suggests functional specialization of PFC subareas in fine-tuned regulation of information processing.
事实证明，前额叶皮层（PFC）中的功能区域很难区分，该区域与注意力、记忆和干扰处理有关。在这里，我们通过确定PFC与初级体感皮层（S1）之间的神经联系如何调节触觉感知，来评估健康人类受试者中PFC子区域在感觉功能的自上而下调节中是否具有不同作用。使用概率性纤维束成像确定皮肤测试部位的S1代表区与PFC之间的解剖连接。对额中回-S1连接进行单脉冲导航经颅磁刺激，而不是额上回-S1连接，会损害区分单触觉脉冲和双触觉脉冲的能力。这种损害发生在一个受限的时间窗口和皮肤区域内。通过分离的PFC-S1通路对触觉辨别进行空间和时间上有组织的自上而下控制，表明PFC子区域在信息处理的微调调节中具有功能特异性。
