Del Vecchio Maria, Caruana Fausto, Sartori Ivana, Pelliccia Veronica, Zauli Flavia Maria, Lo Russo Giorgio, Rizzolatti Giacomo, Avanzini Pietro
University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Dipartimento di Scienze Biomediche, Metaboliche e Neuroscienze, 41100, Modena, Italy.
Istituto di Neuroscienze, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, 43125, Parma, Italy.
Commun Biol. 2020 Feb 20;3(1):80. doi: 10.1038/s42003-020-0793-8.
The properties of the secondary somatosensory area (SII) have been described by many studies in monkeys and humans. Recent studies on monkeys, however, showed that beyond somatosensory stimuli, SII responds to a wider number of stimuli, a finding requiring a revision that human SII is purely sensorimotor. By recording cortical activity with stereotactic electroencephalography (stereo-EEG), we examined the properties of SI and SII in response to a motor task requiring reaching, grasping and manipulation, as well as the observation of the same actions. Furthermore, we functionally characterized this area with a set of clinical tests, including tactile, acoustical, and visual stimuli. The results showed that only SII activates both during execution and observation with a common temporal profile, whereas SI response were limited to execution. Together with their peculiar response to tactile stimuli, we conclude that the role of SII is pivotal also in the observation of actions involving haptic control.
许多针对猴子和人类的研究都描述了次级体感区（SII）的特性。然而，近期对猴子的研究表明，除了体感刺激外，SII对更多种类的刺激也有反应，这一发现需要修正关于人类SII纯粹是感觉运动区的观点。通过立体定向脑电图（stereo-EEG）记录皮层活动，我们研究了SI和SII在对一项需要伸手、抓握和操作的运动任务以及对相同动作观察时的反应特性。此外，我们通过一系列临床测试，包括触觉、听觉和视觉刺激，对该区域进行了功能特征描述。结果显示，只有SII在执行和观察过程中均以相同的时间模式被激活，而SI的反应仅限于执行过程。结合它们对触觉刺激的特殊反应，我们得出结论，SII在涉及触觉控制的动作观察中也起着关键作用。
