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Somatosensation

Somatosensation

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.

Association Areas of the Cortex

Association Areas of the Cortex

Association areas are regions of the cerebral cortex that do not have a specific sensory or motor function. Instead, they integrate and interpret information from various sources to enable higher cognitive processes such as memory, learning, and decision-making. Some key association areas include the following:
Prefrontal Association Area: This area is located in the frontal lobe and is involved in planning, decision-making, and moderating social behavior. It connects with primary motor areas,...

Somatosensory, Motor, and Association Cortex

Somatosensory, Motor, and Association Cortex

The somatosensory cortex in the parietal lobes is crucial for interpreting sensory data such as touch, temperature, and proprioception. The somatosensory cortex, situated in the parietal lobes, plays a vital role in interpreting sensory information like touch, temperature, and proprioception—awareness of body position. This specialized brain region features an organized structure wherein neurons at the top primarily process sensations originating from the lower body. In contrast, those at...

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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Apr 11, 2026

How to Measure Cortical Folding from MR Images: a Step-by-Step Tutorial to Compute Local Gyrification Index

How to Measure Cortical Folding from MR Images: a Step-by-Step Tutorial to Compute Local Gyrification Index

Published on: January 2, 2012

Shape index distribution based local surface complexity applied to the human cortex.

Sun Hyung Kim¹, Vladimir Fonov², D Louis Collins²

¹Department of Psychiatry, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA.

Proceedings of Spie--The International Society for Optical Engineering

|June 2, 2015

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

We developed a new method to measure local surface complexity in the human brain. This technique reveals varying complexity across the cortex and its changes during early development.

Keywords:

Earth Move Distance Local Shape Complexity Index Shape Index

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Last Updated: Apr 11, 2026

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Area of Science:

Neuroscience
Medical Imaging
Computational Biology

Background:

Quantifying local surface complexity in the human cortex is crucial for understanding population variations and developmental changes in neurological diseases.
Existing methods may not fully capture the nuanced local topology of the cortical surface.

Purpose of the Study:

To introduce a novel computational method for assessing local surface complexity in the human cortex.
To quantify local surface complexity using the difference between observed and model-based topology distributions.

Main Methods:

Local surface complexity is represented as the Earth Mover's Distance (EMD) between observed and best-fit basic topology models.
Surface topology is quantified using the Shape Index (SI) measure within local neighborhoods.
A geodesic kernel is employed to compute local SI histogram distributions.

Main Results:

Higher complexity was observed in gyral/sulcal wall regions, with lower complexity in gyral ridges and sulcal fundi.
Preliminary findings indicate increased cortical surface complexity in the early postnatal years.
These changes are hypothesized to be linked to developmental processes like sulcal pit formation.

Conclusions:

The proposed EMD-based method effectively quantifies local cortical surface complexity.
The findings provide insights into the topographical organization of the cortex and its developmental trajectory.
This method has potential applications in studying neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative conditions.