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Updated: May 11, 2026
04:40
Tactile Semiautomatic Passive-Finger Angle Stimulator (TSPAS)
Published on: July 30, 2020
Anticipation increases tactile stimulus processing in the ipsilateral primary somatosensory cortex
Freek van Ede1, Floris P de Lange1, Eric Maris1
1Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University Nijmegen, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
Cerebral Cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991)
|May 7, 2013
Summary
Anticipating a stimulus enhances tactile perception by modulating neural oscillations. This study reveals that increased activity in the ipsilateral somatosensory cortex during anticipation correlates with improved tactile identification.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Cognitive Science
- Sensory Perception
Background:
- Stimulus anticipation is known to improve perception.
- Previous research often focused on early evoked activity, neglecting later neural processes.
- Understanding how anticipation alters sensory processing, particularly neural oscillations, is crucial.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate how stimulus anticipation alters sensory processing beyond early evoked activity.
- To examine stimulus-induced modulations of neural oscillations in a demanding perceptual task.
- To explore the parametric influence of anticipation on tactile perception.
Main Methods:
- Magnetoencephalography (MEG) recorded from 19 human participants.
- A cued tactile identification task involving proximal or distal fingertip stimulation.
- Varied cue-target intervals (0-1000 ms) to parametrically manipulate anticipation levels.
Main Results:
- Anticipation increased stimulus-induced suppression of beta-band oscillations.
- This effect originated from the ipsilateral primary somatosensory cortex.
- The observed neural response correlated with improved tactile perception and suggests bilateral processing.
Conclusions:
- Anticipation enhances tactile perception through modulation of neural oscillations in the ipsilateral somatosensory cortex.
- This ipsilateral response may reflect distributed processing across bilateral primary sensory cortices, increasing with anticipation.
- This represents a novel mechanism contributing to perception and its enhancement by anticipation.
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