Segregation of Tactile Input Features in Neurons of the Cuneate Nucleus
Segregation of Tactile Input Features in Neurons of the Cuneate Nucleus
复制标题
DOI：
10.1016/j.neuron.2014.07.038
复制
发表时间：
2014-09-17
期刊：
影响因子：
16.2
通讯作者：
Hayward, Vincent
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Jorntell, Henrik;Bengtsson, Fredrik;Hayward, Vincent
我们对外部物体的触觉感知取决于皮肤与物体的相互作用。接触的力学决定了基本的时空输入特征的存在-接触的开始和停止，滑动和滚动接触-源于固体物体不相互穿透的事实。然而，目前尚不清楚这些特征是否在大脑中表现出来。我们使用了一种新的触觉接口，以提供这样的输入到无毛的皮肤的手指/指垫和记录从神经元的楔状核（大脑的第一级触觉处理）在猫。令人惊讶的是，尽管有类似的感受野和响应特性，每个楔状核神经元响应这些输入的独特组合。因此，不同的触觉输入特征已经在皮层下处理阶段被编码。这种组织将皮肤-物体相互作用映射到提供给更高皮层水平的丰富表征中，并可能要求重新评估我们目前对大脑体感系统的理解。
Our tactile perception of external objects depends on skin-object interactions. The mechanics of contact dictates the existence of fundamental spatiotemporal input features-contact initiation and cessation, slip, and rolling contact-that originate from the fact that solid objects do not interpenetrate. However, it is unknown whether these features are represented within the brain. We used a novel haptic interface to deliver such inputs to the glabrous skin of finger/digit pads and recorded from neurons of the cuneate nucleus (the brain's first level of tactile processing) in the cat. Surprisingly, despite having similar receptive fields and response properties, each cuneate neuron responded to a unique combination of these inputs. Hence, distinct haptic input features are encoded already at subcortical processing stages. This organization maps skin-object interactions into rich representations provided to higher cortical levels and may call for a re-evaluation of our current understanding of the brain's somatosensory systems.