Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 3, 2026

µTongue: A Microfluidics-Based Functional Imaging Platform for the Tongue In Vivo
Published on: April 22, 2021
Somatotopic representation of the tongue in human secondary somatosensory cortex
Kiwako Sakamoto1, Hiroki Nakata, Ryusuke Kakigi
1Department of Integrative Physiology, National Institute for Physiological Sciences, Myodaiji, Okazaki 444-8585, Japan. kiwakos@nips.ac.jp
Objective:
To clarify the somatotopic representation of the tongue secondary somatosensory cortex (SII) in humans.
Methods:
Somatosensory evoked magnetic fields (SEFs) were recorded from nine subjects after stimulating four body sites, left antero (LA) and postero (LP) lateral margins of the tongue, left median nerve at the wrist (Hand), and left tibial nerve at the ankle (Foot).
Results:
Clear neural activities were recorded from the bilateral SII in both hemispheres after the four sites were stimulated. The tongue SII for LA and LP was located close to the hand SII and significantly more anterior than the Foot SII. There was no significant difference in the location of dipoles between the LA and LP areas of the tongue SII. The mean peak latencies of the tongue SII for LA and LP were significantly shorter in the hemisphere contralateral to the stimulation than the ipsilateral hemisphere.
Conclusions:
The tongue areas are considered to occupy a small region in SII with insufficient spatial separation to differentiate anterior from posterior areas even using magnetoencephalography which has a higher spatial resolution than electroencephalography (EEG).
Significance:
This is the first systematical study to clarify the activated regions in SII following stimulation of the tongue.
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