Jove
Visualize
Contact Us
JoVE
x logofacebook logolinkedin logoyoutube logo
ABOUT JoVE
OverviewLeadershipBlogJoVE Help Center
AUTHORS
Publishing ProcessEditorial BoardScope & PoliciesPeer ReviewFAQSubmit
LIBRARIANS
TestimonialsSubscriptionsAccessResourcesLibrary Advisory BoardFAQ
RESEARCH
JoVE JournalMethods CollectionsJoVE Encyclopedia of ExperimentsArchive
EDUCATION
JoVE CoreJoVE BusinessJoVE Science EducationJoVE Lab ManualFaculty Resource CenterFaculty Site
Terms & Conditions of Use
Privacy Policy
Policies

Related Experiment Videos

Touch activates human auditory cortex.

Martin Schürmann1, Gina Caetano, Yevhen Hlushchuk

  • 1Brain Research Unit, Low Temperature Laboratory, Helsinki University of Technology, FIN-02015 Espoo, Finland. martins@neuro.hut.fi

Neuroimage
|February 21, 2006
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Related Concept Videos

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by
Same author

Integrated anatomical and functional connectivity mapping in episodic migraine: a spectral graph theory approach.

Scientific reports·2026
Same author

Bias in Structural MRI Correlates of Delay Discounting due to Head Motion.

Human brain mapping·2026
Same author

Using ECG-derived respiration for explaining BOLD-fMRI fluctuations during rest and respiratory modulations.

Scientific reports·2025
Same author

Creative experiences and brain clocks.

Nature communications·2025
Same author

Predicting entrepreneurship from brain structure and neural responses to risk and ambiguity.

Scientific reports·2025
Same author

Cerebrovascular reactivity mapping using breath-hold BOLD-fMRI: Comparison of signal models combined with voxelwise lag optimization.

Imaging neuroscience (Cambridge, Mass.)·2025

Touch can activate auditory brain regions, potentially explaining how tactile exploration enhances hearing. This study found that even non-vibrating touch activated the posterior auditory belt area, suggesting its role in processing hand-environment interactions.

Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Auditory Neuroscience
  • Sensory Integration

Background:

  • Vibrotactile stimuli can enhance hearing in both impaired and normal hearing individuals.
  • Auditory-tactile interactions are known to activate specific brain regions, including somatosensory and auditory cortices.
  • The neural basis for how touch influences auditory perception remains an active area of research.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate auditory brain areas activated by tactile stimulation using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).
  • To explore the neural mechanisms underlying the facilitation of hearing by vibrotactile stimuli.
  • To determine if tactile pressure alone, without vibration, activates auditory regions.

Main Methods:

  • Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to study 13 healthy subjects.

Related Experiment Videos

  • Vibrotactile stimuli (200 Hz vibration bursts) were applied to fingers and palm.
  • Tactile pressure pulses were delivered to fingertips, and noise bursts were used to map auditory cortex.

    • Main Results:

    • A specific 85-mm3 region in the posterior auditory belt area showed vibrotactile-auditory co-activation.
    • Tactile pressure pulses, even without vibration, also activated parts of the posterior auditory belt area.
    • Minimal smoothing was applied during analysis for a conservative estimate of activation.

    Conclusions:

    • The posterior auditory belt area is involved in processing audiotactile events during dynamic hand-environment interactions.
    • This auditory activation by touch may underlie the behavioral facilitation of hearing observed with vibrotactile stimuli.
    • The findings suggest that the auditory system processes sound-like temporal patterns in tactile vibrations and dynamic touch.