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Bayesian population receptive field modeling in human somatosensory cortex

View ORCID ProfileAlexander M. Puckett, View ORCID ProfileSaskia Bollmann, Keerat Junday, View ORCID ProfileMarkus Barth, View ORCID ProfileRoss Cunnington
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/577981
Alexander M. Puckett
aQueensland Brain Institute, The University of Queensland; Brisbane QLD 4072; Australia
bSchool of Psychology, The University of Queensland; Brisbane QLD 4072; Australia
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Saskia Bollmann
cCentre for Advanced Imaging, The University of Queensland; Brisbane QLD 4072; Australia
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Keerat Junday
aQueensland Brain Institute, The University of Queensland; Brisbane QLD 4072; Australia
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Markus Barth
cCentre for Advanced Imaging, The University of Queensland; Brisbane QLD 4072; Australia
dSchool of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering, The University of Queensland; Brisbane QLD 4072; Australia
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Ross Cunnington
aQueensland Brain Institute, The University of Queensland; Brisbane QLD 4072; Australia
bSchool of Psychology, The University of Queensland; Brisbane QLD 4072; Australia
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Abstract

Somatosensation is fundamental to our ability to sense our body and interact with the world. Our body is continuously sampling the environment using a variety of receptors tuned to different features, and this information is routed up to primary somatosensory cortex. Strikingly, the spatial organization of the peripheral receptors in the body are well maintained, with the resulting representation of the body in the brain being referred to as the somatosensory homunculus. Recent years have seen considerable advancements in the field of high-resolution fMRI, which have enabled an increasingly detailed examination of the organization and properties of this homunculus. Here we combined advanced imaging techniques at ultra-high field (7T) with a recently developed Bayesian population receptive field (pRF) modeling framework to examine pRF properties in primary somatosensory cortex. In each subject, vibrotactile stimulation of the fingertips (i.e., the peripheral mechanoreceptors) modulated the fMRI response along the post-central gyrus and these signals were used to estimate pRFs. We found the pRF center location estimates to be in accord with previous work as well as evidence of other properties in line with the underlying neurobiology. Specifically, as expected from the known properties of cortical magnification, we find a larger representation of the index finger compared to the other stimulated digits (middle, index, little). We also show evidence that the little finger is marked by the largest pRF sizes. The ability to estimate somatosensory pRFs in humans provides an unprecedented opportunity to examine the neural mechanisms underlying somatosensation and is critical for studying how the brain, body, and environment interact to inform perception and action.

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Posted March 16, 2019.
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Bayesian population receptive field modeling in human somatosensory cortex
Alexander M. Puckett, Saskia Bollmann, Keerat Junday, Markus Barth, Ross Cunnington
bioRxiv 577981; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/577981
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Bayesian population receptive field modeling in human somatosensory cortex
Alexander M. Puckett, Saskia Bollmann, Keerat Junday, Markus Barth, Ross Cunnington
bioRxiv 577981; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/577981

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