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Somatosensation

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The somatosensory system relays sensory information from the skin, mucous membranes, limbs, and joints. Somatosensation is more familiarly known as the sense of touch. A typical somatosensory pathway includes three types of long neurons: primary, secondary, and tertiary. Primary neurons have cell bodies located near the spinal cord in groups of neurons called dorsal root ganglia. The sensory neurons of ganglia innervate designated areas of skin called dermatomes.

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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jun 16, 2026

Translational Brain Mapping at the University of Rochester Medical Center: Preserving the Mind Through Personalized Brain Mapping

Translational Brain Mapping at the University of Rochester Medical Center: Preserving the Mind Through Personalized Brain Mapping

Published on: August 12, 2019

Salience maps in parietal cortex: imaging and computational modeling.

Chantal Roggeman¹, Wim Fias, Tom Verguts

¹Department of Experimental Psychology, Ghent University, 9000 Ghent, Belgium. chantal.roggeman@ki.se

|January 27, 2010

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Task demands modulate brain

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Area of Science:

Cognitive Neuroscience
Neuroimaging
Computational Neuroscience

Background:

Salience maps are computational models of spatial attention.
These maps often use competitive interaction models with self-excitation and lateral inhibition.
Previous models did not fully explore how task demands influence these maps.

Purpose of the Study:

To test predictions of competitive interaction models for salience maps.
To investigate the role of lateral inhibition in modulating attention.
To examine how top-down task demands affect salience map activation.

Main Methods:

Simulated competitive interaction maps with varying lateral inhibition parameters.
Conducted fMRI experiments with varying attentional demands (medium and low).
Analyzed activation curves as a function of set size in posterior superior parietal cortex.

Main Results:

High lateral inhibition resulted in a monotonous activation curve.
Medium lateral inhibition produced a Lambda-shaped curve, confirmed via fMRI.
Low lateral inhibition predicted and was observed as a V-shaped curve in fMRI.

Conclusions:

Findings support a competitive interaction model for salience maps in the posterior superior parietal cortex.
Lateral inhibition parameters are dynamically modulated by top-down attentional demands.
This provides evidence for flexible, task-dependent attentional mechanisms.