Neural Aspects of Tactile SensationJ.W. Morley The world within reach is characterised to a large extent by our ability to sense objects through touch. Research into the sensation of touch has a long history. However, it is only relatively recently that significant advances have been made in understanding how information about objects we touch is represented in both the peripheral and central divisions of the nervous systems. This volume draws together the increasing body of knowledge regarding the mechanisms underlying tactile sensation and how they relate to tactile perception.Individual chapters address; the response of mechanoreceptors to stimuli (including movement and shape), the role of the somatosensory cortex in processing tactile information, the psychophysics and neurophysiology of the detection and categorisation of somesthetic stimuli, perceptual constancy, recent findings in regard to short term and long term plasticity in the somatosensory cortex and the psychophysical correlates of this plasticity, and parallel versus serial information processing in the cortex.The authors look at past and current research, and comment on the direction of future investigation, relating findings from psychophysical studies of tactile behavior to our growing understanding of the underlying neural mechanisms. |
Contents
1 | |
Chapter 2 Extracting the Shape of an Object from the Responses of Peripheral Nerve Fibers | 55 |
Chapter 3 The Signalling of Touch Finger Movements and Manipulation Forces by Mechanoreceptors in Human Skin | 89 |
Chapter 4 Similarities Between Touch and Vision | 131 |
Chapter 5 Functional Organization of the Somatosensory Cortex in the Primate | 167 |
Chapter 6 Representation of Tactile Functions in the Somatosensory Cortex | 195 |
Chapter 7 Processing of Somesthetic Stimuli in Primate Sensorymotor Cortex | 239 |
Central Neural Mechanisms Underlying the Appreciation of Texture During Active Touch | 275 |
Chapter 9 Shortterm Plasticity in Adult Somatosensory Cortex | 299 |
351 | |
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activity adapting afferents area 3b axons C-fibre Calford and Tweedale categorization task cerebral cortex cm/sec Comparitive Neurology contact force cortical curvature cytoarchitectural Darian-Smith denervation digit direction discrimination directional sensitivity discharge dorsal Edin Essick evoked Experimental Brain Research fibers Figure finger fingerpad forearm frequency function Gardner glabrous skin Goodwin hairy skin increased inputs intraparietal sulcus Iwamura Johansson Johnson Journal of Neurophysiology Journal of Neuroscience Journal of Physiology Kaas LaMotte length of skin Macefield mechanoreceptive afferents Merzenich motion Mountcastle movement moving tactile stimuli muscimol nerve Neurology neurons Neuroscience Norrsell and Olausson objects Pacinian corpuscles parameters parietal pathways patterns perception Phillips postcentral gyrus primary somatosensory cortex primate probe processing profiles projections psychophysical RA afferents receptive field receptors region responses scanned sensory signals single skin traversed slowly adapting somatic somatosensory system spatial sphere Srinivasan stimuli stimulus speeds stretch studies subjects surface temporal texture thalamic threshold Vallbo velocity visual Whitsel