Cortical sources of human short-latency somatosensory evoked fields to median and ulnar nerve stimuli

;;;;;õry evoked magnetic fields were measured with a 122-channel whole-scalp neuromagnetometer from seven healthy adults. Electric stimuli, with an intensity above the motor threshold, were delivered once every 0.5 s alternately to the median and ulnar nerves at the wrist; both wrists were stimulated successively within one session. In most subjects, two distinct neural sources were identified at the contralateral primary somatosensory cortex SI for both stimuli. The first source (M20) peaked at 21-22 ms and indicated activation of area 3b in the contralateral SI hand region. The same source peaked with opposite current direction at 32 ms. The second source (M40) was slightly medial to M20 and exhibited two peaks with the same current direction, first at 25 ms and most prominently at 42 ms. M20 was on average 7 mm more lateral along the central sulcus for median than ulnar nerve stimuli, in agreement with the somatotopic organization of the SI cortex; similar organization for M40 was less clear. These results suggest that M20 and M40 to upper limb stimulation represent activation of distinct neuronal populations in hand SI cortex, presumably in area 3b.