Cortical substrates of tactile and multisensory processing

我的研究计划有两个中心推动力：表征人类体感皮质的空间组织和处理特征，以及了解这种体感信息如何与其他感觉信息相结合，以解决涉及运动和模式感知的多感觉任务。在过去的五年里，我一直在使用功能磁共振成像(FMRI)对人脑中处理体感信息的皮质区域进行功能定位。例如，我使用我为在fMRI环境中使用而开发的气动刺激技术，研究了人体体感皮质(即体感躯体复制)中特定身体部分(面部和手指)的表征。我还进行了研究，考察了触觉物体和面部感知的神经基础。我将在拟议的研究中追求两个总体主题。第一，我想通过研究触觉刺激的时间方面如何调节这些区域的活动，继续研究躯体感觉皮质和相关皮质区域的功能特征。第二，我想探索不同的感觉信号(视觉和触觉)如何相互作用，以实现特定的行为目标。我将使用心理物理学技术来探索这些问题，目的是将这些技术引入神经成像领域。这项资助中概述的工作不仅将有助于我们理解在触觉刺激过程中在人类顶叶和相关皮质内产生的信号的性质，而且还将提供关于触觉信号如何与其他感觉信号相结合来解决多感觉任务的信息。

My research program has two central thrusts: to characterize the spatial organization and processing features of human somatosensory cortex and to understand how such somatosensory information is combined with other sensory information to solve multisensory tasks involving motion and pattern perception.   Over the past five years I have been using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to functionally localize cortical regions in the human brain that process somatosensory information. For example, I have examined the representation of particular body parts (face and fingers) in human somatosensory cortex (i.e., somatosensory somatotopy) using a pneumatic stimulation technique that I developed for use in the fMRI environment.  I have also conducted studies examining the neural substrates of haptic object and face perception. I will pursue two general themes in the proposed research.   First, I want to continue investigating the functional characteristics of somatosensory cortex and related cortical regions by investigating how temporal aspects of tactile stimulation modulate activity in these regions.  Second, I would like to explore how different sensory signals (visual and tactile) interact to achieve particular behavioural goals. I will use psychophysical techniques to explore these questions with the aim of importing such techniques into a neuroimaging context. The work outlined in this grant will contribute not only to our understanding of the nature of the signals arising within human parietal and associated cortex during tactile stimulation, but it will also provide information about how tactile signals are combined with other sensory signals to solve multisensory tasks.