Preusser S Thiel SD Rook C Roggenhofer E Kosatschek A Draganski B Blankenburg F Driver J Villringer A Pleger B 2015 In humans, touching the skin is known to activate, among others, the contralateral primary somatosensory cortex on the postcentral gyrus together with the bilateral parietal operculum (i.e. the anatomical site of the secondary somatosensory cortex). But which brain regions beyond the postcentral gyrus specifically contribute to the perception of touch remains speculative. In this study we collected structural magnetic resonance imaging scans and neurological examination reports of patients with brain injuries or stroke in the left or right hemisphere, but not in the postcentral gyrus as the entry site of cortical somatosensory processing. Using voxel-based lesion-symptom mapping, we compared patients with impaired touch perception (i.e. hypoaesthesia) to patients without such touch impairments. Patients with hypoaesthesia as compared to control patients differed in one single brain cluster comprising the contralateral parietal operculum together with the anterior and posterior insular cortex, the putamen, as well as subcortical white matter connections reaching ventrally towards prefrontal structures. This finding confirms previous speculations on the 'ventral pathway of somatosensory perception' and causally links these brain structures to the perception of touch. application/pdf https://sonar.ch/global/documents/265260 eng info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/doi/10.1093/brain/awu370 info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/pmid/25541190 info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess Brain : a journal of neurology. - 2015 lesion symptom mapping perception somatosensory cortex touch ventral somatosensory pathway Adolescent Adult Aged Brain Injuries Brain Mapping Female Functional Laterality Humans Image Processing, Computer-Assisted Magnetic Resonance Imaging Male Middle Aged Neural Pathways Neurologic Examination Perceptual Disorders Somatosensory Cortex Statistics, Nonparametric Touch Young Adult The perception of touch and the ventral somatosensory pathway. http://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501