The perception of touch and the ventral somatosensory pathway.
Preusser S1 Department of Neurology, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany.
Thiel SD1 Department of Neurology, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany 2 Department of Psychology, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences II, Humboldt-University, Berlin, Germany.
Rook C3 Department of Cognitive Neurology, University Hospital Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany.
Roggenhofer E1 Department of Neurology, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany 3 Department of Cognitive Neurology, University Hospital Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany 4 Laboratoire de Recherche en Neuroimagerie - LREN, Departement des neurosciences cliniques, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois (CHUV), Mont Paisible 16, 1011 Lausanne, Switzerland.
Kosatschek A1 Department of Neurology, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany.
Draganski B4 Laboratoire de Recherche en Neuroimagerie - LREN, Departement des neurosciences cliniques, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois (CHUV), Mont Paisible 16, 1011 Lausanne, Switzerland.
Blankenburg F5 Berlin School of Mind and Brain and Mind and Brain Institute, Charité and Humboldt-University Berlin, Germany 6 Department of Education and Psychology, Neurocomputation and Neuroimaging Unit, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany.
Driver J7 University College London Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, London, UK.
Villringer A1 Department of Neurology, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany 3 Department of Cognitive Neurology, University Hospital Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany 5 Berlin School of Mind and Brain and Mind and Brain Institute, Charité and Humboldt-University Berlin, Germany 8 Centre for Stroke Research Berlin, Charité, Berlin, Germany.
Pleger B1 Department of Neurology, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany 3 Department of Cognitive Neurology, University Hospital Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany bpleger@cbs.mpg.de.
English
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.