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Imaging human cortical responses to intraneural microstimulation using magnetoencephalography.

Authors :
O'Neill GC
Watkins RH
Ackerley R
Barratt EL
Sengupta A
Asghar M
Sanchez Panchuelo RM
Brookes MJ
Glover PM
Wessberg J
Francis ST
Source :
NeuroImage [Neuroimage] 2019 Apr 01; Vol. 189, pp. 329-340. Date of Electronic Publication: 2019 Jan 09.
Publication Year :
2019

Abstract

The sensation of touch in the glabrous skin of the human hand is conveyed by thousands of fast-conducting mechanoreceptive afferents, which can be categorised into four distinct types. The spiking properties of these afferents in the periphery in response to varied tactile stimuli are well-characterised, but relatively little is known about the spatiotemporal properties of the neural representations of these different receptor types in the human cortex. Here, we use the novel methodological combination of single-unit intraneural microstimulation (INMS) with magnetoencephalography (MEG) to localise cortical representations of individual touch afferents in humans, by measuring the extracranial magnetic fields from neural currents. We found that by assessing the modulation of the beta (13-30 Hz) rhythm during single-unit INMS, significant changes in oscillatory amplitude occur in the contralateral primary somatosensory cortex within and across a group of fast adapting type I mechanoreceptive afferents, which corresponded well to the induced response from matched vibrotactile stimulation. Combining the spatiotemporal specificity of MEG with the selective single-unit stimulation of INMS enables the interrogation of the central representations of different aspects of tactile afferent signalling within the human cortices. The fundamental finding that single-unit INMS ERD responses are robust and consistent with natural somatosensory stimuli will permit us to more dynamically probe the central nervous system responses in humans, to address questions about the processing of touch from the different classes of mechanoreceptive afferents and the effects of varying the stimulus frequency and patterning.<br /> (Copyright © 2019 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Details

Language :
English
ISSN :
1095-9572
Volume :
189
Database :
MEDLINE
Journal :
NeuroImage
Publication Type :
Academic Journal
Accession number :
30639839
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2019.01.017