title: Neural time-course of the observation of human and non-human object touch.
abstract: Recent functional magnetic resonance imaging studies have reported activation of primary and secondary somatosensory cortices when participants observe another person or object being touched. In this study, we used event-related potentials to examine the nature and time-course of the neural mechanisms associated with the observation of humans and non-human objects being touched. Participants were presented with short video clips of a human arm or a non-human cylindrical object being touched by an object, compared with an object moving in front of the arms or cylinders without touching them. Touch vs non-touch effects were observed in the amplitudes of the N100 and N250 components, as well as a late slow wave component (500-600 ms), measured from electrodes over primary somatosensory cortex. Human vs non-human stimulus effects were reflected in the latencies of the N100, P170 and N250 components recorded over somatosensory cortex, as well as the temporal-parietal visual-perceptual N170 and N250 components. These findings suggest that human and non-human touch observation are associated with somatosensory processing at both an early sensory-perceptual stage and a relatively late cognitive stage, both preceding and following the perceptual encoding of the humanness of stimuli that typically occurs in extrastriate visual areas.
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham, West Midlands B15 2TT, UK. AXS097@bham.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Alena
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Streltsova
authors.forename: Joseph P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: McCleery
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001931:Brain Mapping / Q000379:methods; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods; D008297:Male; D010812:Physical Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D013003:Somatosensory Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D013997:Time Factors; D014110:Touch / Q000502:physiology*; D055698:Touch Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult