RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Somatosensory Cortex of Macaque Monkeys is Designed for Opposable Thumb
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 2020.08.31.261115
DO 10.1101/2020.08.31.261115
A1 Lazar, Leslee
A1 Chand, Prem
A1 Rajan, Radhika
A1 Mohammed, Hisham
A1 Jain, Neeraj
YR 2020
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2020/08/31/2020.08.31.261115.abstract
AB The evolution of opposable thumb has enabled fine grasping ability and precision grip, which led to the capacity for fine manipulation of objects and refined tool use. Since tactile inputs to an opposable thumb are often spatially and temporally out of synch with inputs from the fingers, we hypothesized that inputs from the opposable thumb would be processed in an independent module in the primary somatosensory cortex (area 3b). Here we show that in area 3b of macaque monkeys, most neurons in the thumb representation do not respond to tactile stimulation of other digits and receive few intrinsic cortical inputs from other digits. However, neurons in the representations of other digits respond to touch on any of the four digits and are significantly more interconnected in the cortex. The thumb inputs are thus processed in an independent module, whereas there is significantly more inter-digital information exchange between the other digits. This cortical organization reflects behavioral use of the hand with an opposable thumb.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.