Sensing without touching:: Psychophysical performance based on cortical microstimulation
Sensing without touching:: Psychophysical performance based on cortical microstimulation
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DOI：
10.1016/s0896-6273(00)81156-3
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发表时间：
2000-04-01
期刊：
影响因子：
16.2
通讯作者：
Lemus, L
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Romo, R;Hernández, A;Lemus, L
Unequivocal proof that the activity of a localized cortical neuronal population provides sufficient basis for a specific cognitive function has rarely been obtained. We looked for such proof in monkeys trained to discriminate between two mechanical flutter stimuli applied sequentially to the fingertips. Microelectrodes were inserted into clusters of quickly adapting (QA) neurons of the primary somatosensory cortex (S1), and the first or both stimuli were then substituted with trains of current pulses during the discrimination task. Psychophysical performance with artificial stimulus frequencies was almost identical to that measured with the natural stimulus frequencies. Our results indicate that microstimutation can be used to elicit a memorizable and discriminable analog range of percepts, and shows that activation of the QA circuit of S1 is sufficient to initiate all subsequent neural processes associated with flutter discrimination.
