SENSORIMOTOR CORTEX IN PROSIMIAN PRIMATE

所有哺乳动物物种似乎都有两种主要的体细胞感觉投射 大脑皮层感觉运动区 SmI 和 SmII 区域。 两个投影区域都接收来自 对侧身体表面，但最突出的是手。 单边 SmI 或 SmII 手部区域的损伤会导致严重的行为缺陷 纹理辨别能力。 然而细胞的反应特性 在非灵长类物种的这两个领域表明它们可能做出贡献 与辨别时空特征的能力不同 有纹理的表面。 凭借对感觉运动皮层的持续兴趣和 灵长类动物的触觉功能，我们打算研究 Galago 以确定：1） SmII的生理组织和细胞结构特征； 2） 选择性去除 SmI 或 SmII 后的纹理辨别缺陷 手部区域无毛； 3）SmI和SmII神经元对 手持点状刺激和正常情况下鼓旋转的纹理表面 动物。 在这些多学科研究中，我们将研究 SmI 和 SmII 对纹理辨别能力的贡献，如 由皮质病变的行为后果和 组成神经元的生理特性。 我们提出了这些研究 在 Galago 中，因为它是灵长类动物，其中 SmI 和 SmII 都更 与 Macaca 和其他地方相比，组织简单，更容易访问 类人猿灵长类动物。 然而，我们预计 SI 和 SII 的研究结果 Galago 可推广到更复杂和最近进化的灵长类动物。 这些关于触觉辨别的生理基础的研究是 有望展示感知中的特定神经机制 现象。 对躯体感觉的神经基础的理解 对于精神科和医学领域常见的知觉异常具有重要意义 神经系统疾病。

All mammalian species appear to have two major somatic sensory projection areas in the sensorimotor region of the cerebral cortex, SmI and SmII. Both projection areas receive low-threshold cutaneous input from the contralateral body surface, but most prominantly from the hand. Unilateral lesions of the SmI or SmII hand areas produce severe behavioral deficits in texture discrimination capacity. However the response properties of cells in these two areas in non-primate species suggest they may contribute differently to the ability to discriminate the spatiotemporal features of textured surfaces. With a continuing interest in sensorimotor cortex and tactile function in primates, we intend to study Galago to determine: 1) the physiological organization and cytoarchitectonic features of SmII; 2) texture discrimination deficits following selective removal of SmI or SmII glabrous hand areas; 3) the response properties of SmI and SmII neurons to hand-held punctate stimuli and to drum-rotated textured surfaces in normal animals. In these multidisciplinary studies we will examine the conributions of SmI and SmII to texture discrimination capacity, as suggested by behavioral consequences of cortical lesions and by the physiological properties of constituent neurons. We proposed these studies in Galago, as it is a primate species in which both SmI and SmII are more simply organized and more easily accessible than in Macaca and other anthropoid primates. However, we expect the findings of SI and SII in Galago to be generalizable to more complex and recently-evolved primates. These studies of the physiological basis of tactile discrimination are expected to demonstrate specific neural mechanism in perceptual phenomenon. An understanding of neural basis for somatic sensation has significance for perceptual abnormalities so common in psychiatric and neurological disorders.