Single-nociceptor tracing reveals a novel somatotopic organization for the mammalian pain system, and physiological recordings and peripheral optogenetic behavior assays suggest that it is a possible mechanism underlying region-specific pain sensation.
A combination of 7 tesla fMRI and psychophysics revealed the reorganisation of the human somatosensory cortex and changes in tactile perceptual abilities after just 24 hours of altered hand use.
The brain continues to represent individual fingers in primary somatosensory cortex decades after the amputation of a hand, indicating that cortical maps do not require ongoing sensory input from the body.
Two distinct thalamocortical pathways were found to provide differential excitatory synaptic input to distinct cell-types across layers of mouse primary somatosensory barrel cortex.
The somatosensory cortex doesn't integrate mixed bilateral inputs, as partially uncrossing projections from the whiskers duplicates their representation by segregating lateralized inputs from each side of the head.
Central thalamus relay neurons dynamically switch the activity of cortical and subcortical networks at distinct frequencies, providing a mechanism for this region's role in arousal regulation.
Pleasant touch perception in humans is unaffected by spinothalamic disruption indicating integrated spinal processing of hedonic and discriminative tactile inputs rather than privileged C-tactile-lamina I-spinothalamic projections.
Sensory enrichment creates a more columnar, less salt-and-pepper whisker map in somatosensory cortex, showing that impoverished experience contributes to intermixed tuning in rodent sensory maps.
