Sustained attention to spontaneous thumb sensations activates brain somatosensory and other proprioceptive areas |
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| Institution: | 1. Instituto de Neurobiología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Blvd. Juriquilla 3001, 76230 Querétaro, Mexico;2. Departamento de Historia y Filosofía de la Medicina, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Brasil y Venezuela, centro Histórico, México, DF, Mexico;1. Brain and Behaviour Laboratory, Research Institute for Sport and Exercise Sciences, Faculty of Science, Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool, UK;2. Department of Kinesiology, McMaster University, Ontario, Canada;1. School of Psychology, Flinders University, Adelaide, Australia;2. School of Psychology, University of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia;3. School of Computer Science, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, Australia;1. Robotics Research Centre, School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore 639798, Singapore;2. Bielefeld University, Faculty of Psychology and Sport Sciences, Bielefeld 33501, Germany;3. Research Institute for Cognition and Robotics (CoR-Lab), Bielefeld 33501, Germany;4. Center of Excellence Cognitive Interaction Technology (CITEC), Bielefeld 33501, Germany;5. Human Motor Control Laboratory, School of Psychology, The University of Tasmania, Sandy Bay Campus, Hobart, Tasmania 7001, Australia |
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| Abstract: | The present experiment was designed to test if sustained attention directed to the spontaneous sensations of the right or left thumb in the absence of any external stimuli is able to activate corresponding somatosensory brain areas. After verifying in 34 healthy volunteers that external touch stimuli to either thumb effectively activate brain contralateral somatosensory areas, and after subtracting attention mechanisms employed in both touch and spontaneous-sensation conditions, fMRI evidence was obtained that the primary somatosensory cortex (specifically left BA 3a/3b) becomes active when an individual is required to attend to the spontaneous sensations of either thumb in the absence of external stimuli. In addition, the left superior parietal cortex, anterior cingulate gyrus, insula, motor and premotor cortex, left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, Broca’s area, and occipital cortices were activated. Moreover, attention to spontaneous-sensations revealed an increased connectivity between BA 3a/3b, superior frontal gyrus (BA 9) and anterior cingulate cortex (BA 32), probably allowing top-down activations of primary somatosensory cortex. We conclude that specific primary somatosensory areas in conjunction with other left parieto-frontal areas are involved in processing proprioceptive and interoceptive bodily information that underlies own body-representations and that these networks and cognitive functions can be modulated by top-down attentional processes. |
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| Keywords: | Conscious tactile sensation Interoception Proprioception Body representation Top-down attention Sustained attention |
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