Mixed and sensory nerve stimulations activate different cytoarchitectonic areas in the human primary somatosensory cortex SI. Neuromagnetic recordings and statistical considerations.

Magnetic responses evoked by stimulation of the mixed median nerve at the wrist and its cutaneous branches on the glabrous skin of the index and middle fingers were studied. The first responses to mixed nerve stimulation peaked at 19-24 ms, and those to cutaneous nerve stimulation about 4 ms later. The responses, up to a latency of 150 ms, reversed in polarity between the upper and lower parts of the rolandic fissure. Equivalent dipoles for the mixed nerve stimulation were stronger and they lay statistically significantly deeper from the scalp than those activated by the cutaneous nerve stimulation. It is suggested that mixed nerve stimulation activates areas 3a and 3b whereas cutaneous stimulation activates mainly area 3b at the human primary somatosensory cortex. Statistical procedures were developed for comparison of different field patterns and for determining confidence limits of source model parameters. For these purposes the quality and quantity of the noise were studied. The error caused by inaccuracies in the positioning of the magnetometer was found to be minimal in comparison with the signal noise which was estimated from the standard deviation of the averaged response.