title: Modulation of somatosensory perception by motor intention.
abstract: The intention to execute a movement can modulate our perception of sensory events; however, theoretical accounts of these effects, and also empirical data, are often contradictory. We investigated how perception of a somatosensory stimulus differed according to whether it was delivered to a limb being prepared for movement or to a nonmoving limb. Our results demonstrate that individuals perceive a somatosensory stimulus delivered to the "moving" limb as occurring significantly later than when an identical stimulus is delivered to a "nonmoving" limb. Furthermore, human brain imaging (fMRI) analyses demonstrate that this modulation is accompanied by a significant decrease in BOLD signal in the right parietal operculum (SII) for stimuli delivered to the moving limb. These results indicate that during movement preparation a network of premotor brain areas may facilitate movement execution by attenuating the processing of behaviorally irrelevant signals within higher-order secondary somatosensory (SII) areas.
authors.affiliation: a University of Nottingham , Nottingham , UK.
authors.forename: Amy
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Parkinson
authors.forename: Sarah
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Plukaard
authors.forename: Sally L
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Pears
authors.forename: Roger
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Newport
authors.forename: Chris
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Dijkerman
authors.forename: Stephen R
authors.initials: SR
authors.lastname: Jackson