Neural coding of tactile decisions in the human prefrontal cortex

The neural processes underlying tactile decisions in thehumanbrain remain elusive.Weaddressed this question in a functional magnetic resonance imaging study using a somatosensory discrimination task, requiring participants to compare the frequency of two successive tactile stimuli. Tactile stimuli p...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Pleger, Burkhard, Ruff, Christian C., Blankenburg, Felix, Bestmann, Sven, Wiech, Katja, Stephan, Klaas E., Friston, Karl J., Dolan, Raymond J., Capilla González, Almudena
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2006
País:España
Institución:Universidad Autónoma de Madrid
Repositorio:Biblos-e Archivo. Repositorio Institucional de la UAM
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:repositorio.uam.es:10486/668796
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/10486/668796
https://dx.doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.4275-06.2006
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Tactile decision
Tactile discrimination
Weber fraction
Somatosensory cortex
Dorsolateral prefrontal cortex
Functional magnetic resonance imaging
Medicina
Psicología
Descripción
Sumario:The neural processes underlying tactile decisions in thehumanbrain remain elusive.Weaddressed this question in a functional magnetic resonance imaging study using a somatosensory discrimination task, requiring participants to compare the frequency of two successive tactile stimuli. Tactile stimuli per se engaged somatosensory, parietal, and frontal cortical regions. Using a statistical model that accounted for the relative difference in frequencies (i.e., Weber fraction) and discrimination accuracy (i.e., correct or incorrect), we show that trial-by-trial relative frequency difference is represented linearly by activity changes in the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, and bilateral anterior insular cortices. However, a circumscribed region within the left DLPFC showed a different response pattern expressed as activity changes that were monotonically related to relative stimulation difference only for correct but not for incorrect trials. Our findings suggest that activity in the left DLPFC encodes stimulus representations that underlie veridical tactile decisions in humans.