title: The perception of touch and the ventral somatosensory pathway.
abstract: In humans, touching the skin is known to activate, among others, the contralateral primary somatosensory cortex on the postcentral gyrus together with the bilateral parietal operculum (i.e. the anatomical site of the secondary somatosensory cortex). But which brain regions beyond the postcentral gyrus specifically contribute to the perception of touch remains speculative. In this study we collected structural magnetic resonance imaging scans and neurological examination reports of patients with brain injuries or stroke in the left or right hemisphere, but not in the postcentral gyrus as the entry site of cortical somatosensory processing. Using voxel-based lesion-symptom mapping, we compared patients with impaired touch perception (i.e. hypoaesthesia) to patients without such touch impairments. Patients with hypoaesthesia as compared to control patients differed in one single brain cluster comprising the contralateral parietal operculum together with the anterior and posterior insular cortex, the putamen, as well as subcortical white matter connections reaching ventrally towards prefrontal structures. This finding confirms previous speculations on the 'ventral pathway of somatosensory perception' and causally links these brain structures to the perception of touch.
authors.affiliation: 1 Department of Neurology, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany.
authors.forename: Sven
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Preusser
authors.affiliation: 1 Department of Neurology, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany 2 Department of Psychology, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences II, Humboldt-University, Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: Sabrina D
authors.initials: SD
authors.lastname: Thiel
authors.affiliation: 3 Department of Cognitive Neurology, University Hospital Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany.
authors.forename: Carolin
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Rook
authors.affiliation: 1 Department of Neurology, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany 3 Department of Cognitive Neurology, University Hospital Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany 4 Laboratoire de Recherche en Neuroimagerie - LREN, Departement des neurosciences cliniques, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois (CHUV), Mont Paisible 16, 1011 Lausanne, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Elisabeth
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Roggenhofer
authors.affiliation: 1 Department of Neurology, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany.
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kosatschek
authors.affiliation: 4 Laboratoire de Recherche en Neuroimagerie - LREN, Departement des neurosciences cliniques, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois (CHUV), Mont Paisible 16, 1011 Lausanne, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Bogdan
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Draganski
authors.affiliation: 5 Berlin School of Mind and Brain and Mind and Brain Institute, Charité and Humboldt-University Berlin, Germany 6 Department of Education and Psychology, Neurocomputation and Neuroimaging Unit, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: Felix
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Blankenburg
authors.affiliation: 7 University College London Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, London, UK.
authors.forename: Jon
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Driver
authors.affiliation: 1 Department of Neurology, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany 3 Department of Cognitive Neurology, University Hospital Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany 5 Berlin School of Mind and Brain and Mind and Brain Institute, Charité and Humboldt-University Berlin, Germany 8 Centre for Stroke Research Berlin, Charité, Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: Arno
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Villringer
authors.affiliation: 1 Department of Neurology, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany 3 Department of Cognitive Neurology, University Hospital Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany bpleger@cbs.mpg.de.
authors.forename: Burkhard
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Pleger
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001930:Brain Injuries / Q000150:complications* / Q000473:pathology; D001931:Brain Mapping; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009434:Neural Pathways / Q000473:pathology*; D009460:Neurologic Examination; D010468:Perceptual Disorders / Q000209:etiology* / Q000473:pathology*; D013003:Somatosensory Cortex / Q000473:pathology*; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D014110:Touch / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: lesion symptom mapping; perception; somatosensory cortex; touch; ventral somatosensory pathway