The organizational principles of de-differentiated topographic maps in somatosensory cortex

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Abstract

Topographic maps are a fundamental feature of cortex architecture in the mammalian brain. One common theory is that the de-differentiation of topographic maps links to impairments in everyday behavior due to less precise functional map readouts. Here, we tested this theory by characterizing de-differentiated topographic maps in primary somatosensory cortex (SI) of younger and older adults by means of ultra-high resolution functional magnetic resonance imaging together with perceptual finger individuation and hand motor performance. Older adults' SI maps showed similar amplitude and size to younger adults' maps, but presented with less representational similarity between distant fingers. Larger population receptive field sizes in older adults' maps did not correlate with behavior, whereas reduced cortical distances between D2 and D3 related to worse finger individuation but better motor performance. Our data uncover the drawbacks of a simple de-differentiation model of topographic map function, and motivate the introduction of feature-based models of cortical reorganization.

Data availability

Behavioral and MRI data have been deposited in dryad (doi:10.5061/dryad.mgqnk98x8)

The following data sets were generated

1. Liu P
2. Chrysidou A
3. Doehler J
4. Wolbers T
5. Kuehn E.
(2020) The organizational principles of de-differentiated topographic maps - Data
Dryad Digital Repository, doi: 10.5061/dryad.mgqnk98x8.

http://dx.doi.org/10.5061/dryad.mgqnk98x8

Article and author information

Author details

Peng Liu

Institute for Cognitive Neurology and Dementia Research, Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg, Magdeburg, Germany

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
Anastasia Chrysidou

Institute for Cognitive Neurology and Dementia Research, Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg, Magdeburg, Germany

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
Juliane Doehler

Institute for Cognitive Neurology and Dementia Research, Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg, Magdeburg, Germany

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
Martin Hebart

Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
Thomas Wolbers

RG Aging & Cognition, German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE), Magdeburg, Germany

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
Esther Kuehn

Institute for Cognitive Neurology and Dementia Research, Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg, Magdeburg, Germany

For correspondence
esther.kuehn@dzne.de

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

"This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0003-3169-1951

Funding

Center for Behavioral Brain Sciences (ESIF/EFRE 2014-2020; FKZ: ZS/2016/04/78113)

Esther Kuehn

German Research Foundation (KU 3711/2-1,project number: 423633679)

Peng Liu
Juliane Doehler

Else Kroener Fresenius Stiftung (2019-A03)

Anastasia Chrysidou

The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.

Ethics

Human subjects: All participants were paid for their attendance and written informed consent for participation and data handling was received from all participants before starting the experiment. The study was approved by the Ethics committee of the Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg (68/16).

Copyright

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.