TY - JOUR
T1 - Specific forms of neural activity associated with tactile space awareness
AU - Oliveri, Massimiliano
AU - Rossini, Paolo Maria
AU - Filippi, Maria Maddalena
AU - Traversa, Raimondo
AU - Cicinelli, Paola
AU - Caltagirone, Carlo
PY - 2002/6/12
Y1 - 2002/6/12
N2 - Left tactile extinction, in which a left tactile stimulus fails to access consciousness only when a right stimulus is presented simultaneously, offers a model for studying tactile awareness from its transitory absence. Pairs of transcranial magnetic stimuli (TMS) on the parietal cortex inhibit contralateral tactile perception when separated by an interval of I ms. We have applied this technique on the left parietal cortex of right brain damaged (RBD) patients and normal subjects and have shown a selective lack of paired TMS inhibitory effects on right tactile perception of patients during bimanual stimulation. TMS effects were normal during unimanual right stimulation. These results suggest the presence of a specific pattern of inhibitory/excitatory interactions in parietal brain areas as critical for tactile awareness.
AB - Left tactile extinction, in which a left tactile stimulus fails to access consciousness only when a right stimulus is presented simultaneously, offers a model for studying tactile awareness from its transitory absence. Pairs of transcranial magnetic stimuli (TMS) on the parietal cortex inhibit contralateral tactile perception when separated by an interval of I ms. We have applied this technique on the left parietal cortex of right brain damaged (RBD) patients and normal subjects and have shown a selective lack of paired TMS inhibitory effects on right tactile perception of patients during bimanual stimulation. TMS effects were normal during unimanual right stimulation. These results suggest the presence of a specific pattern of inhibitory/excitatory interactions in parietal brain areas as critical for tactile awareness.
KW - Extinction
KW - Parietal lobe
KW - Tactile awareness
KW - TMS
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=0037067077&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=0037067077&partnerID=8YFLogxK
M3 - Article
C2 - 12060795
AN - SCOPUS:0037067077
VL - 13
SP - 997
EP - 1001
JO - NeuroReport
JF - NeuroReport
SN - 0959-4965
IS - 8
ER -