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Inter-hemispheric integration of tactile-motor responses across body parts

Tamè, Luigi, Longo, Matthew R. (2015) Inter-hemispheric integration of tactile-motor responses across body parts. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 9 . p. 345. ISSN 1662-5161. (doi:10.3389/fnhum.2015.00345) (KAR id:71604)

Abstract

In simple detection tasks, reaction times (RTs) are faster when stimuli are presented to the visual ?eld or side of the body ipsilateral to the body part used to respond. This advantage, the crossed-uncrossed difference (CUD), is thought to re?ect interhemispheric interactions needed for sensorimotor information to be integrated between the two cerebral hemispheres. However, it is unknown whether the tactile CUD is invariant when different body parts are stimulated. The most likely structure mediating such processing is thought to be the corpus callosum (CC). Neurophysiological studies have shown that there are denser callosal connections between regions that represent proximal parts of the body near the body midline and more sparse connections for regions representing distal extremities. Therefore, if the information transfer between the two hemispheres is affected by the density of callosal connections, stimuli presented on more distal regions of the body should produce a greater CUD compared to stimuli presented on more proximal regions. This is because interhemispheric transfer of information from regions with sparse callosal connections will be less ef?cient, and hence slower. Here, we investigated whether the CUD is modulated as a function of the different body parts stimulated by presenting tactile stimuli unpredictably on body parts at different distances from the body midline (i.e., Middle Finger, Forearm, or Forehead of each side of the body). Participants detected the stimulus and responded as fast as possible using either their left or right foot. Results showed that the magnitude of the CUD was larger on the ?nger (?2.6 ms) and forearm (?1.8 ms) than on the forehead ('0.9 ms). This result suggests that the interhemispheric transfer of tactile stimuli varies as a function of the strength of callosal connections of the body parts.

Item Type: Article
DOI/Identification number: 10.3389/fnhum.2015.00345
Uncontrolled keywords: tactile, body parts, interhemispheric transfer, CUD, sensory-motor integration
Subjects: B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion
Divisions: Divisions > Division of Human and Social Sciences > School of Psychology
Depositing User: Luigi Tame
Date Deposited: 17 Jan 2019 17:06 UTC
Last Modified: 16 Feb 2021 14:01 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/71604 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

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