title: Neuromagnetic evidence that gingiva area is adjacent to tongue area in human primary somatosensory cortex.
abstract: The somatotopic organization of the human primary somatosensory (SI) area in the cerebral cortex has been intensively studied for the hand, lip, and tongue, but little is known about the gingiva. Penfield concluded that the gingival SI area was above the tongue area, as shown in his famous homunculus map. However, our recent study suggested that the lingual gingiva area was not so different to the tongue area. To delineate the fine SI somatotopy of the gingiva area, evoked magnetic fields were measured in 6 healthy subjects for the stimulus of the anterior or posterior and upper or lower parts of the lip, buccal and lingual gingiva, and tongue. Source position was estimated by a current dipole model at the first peak of the posterior-oriented current in a total of 12 cerebral hemispheres contralateral to the stimulation side. No significant difference was found between the positions of anterior and posterior or upper and lower parts of each structure. Both buccal and lingual gingiva areas were localized adjacent to the tongue area, but significantly lower than the lip area. We believe that the fine SI somatotopy of the human oral structures should be reconsidered.
authors.affiliation: Division of Stomatognathic Physiology and Prosthodontics, Tohoku University Graduate School of Dentistry, Sendai.
authors.forename: Satoshi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Murayama
authors.forename: Nobukazu
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Nakasato
authors.forename: Hiroko
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Nakahara
authors.forename: Akitake
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kanno
authors.forename: Hidemi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Itoh
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D005881:Gingiva / Q000294:innervation / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008280:Magnetics; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D013003:Somatosensory Cortex / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000502:physiology*; D014059:Tongue / Q000294:innervation / Q000502:physiology*