TY - JOUR
T1 - Feeling with the mind's eye
T2 - Contribution of visual cortex to tactile perception
AU - Sathian, K.
AU - Zangaladze, A.
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank our colleagues Scott Grafton and Charles Epstein for their association with the research reviewed here, and are grateful to the NIH for support through grants to KS from the NINDS and NEI.
PY - 2002/9/20
Y1 - 2002/9/20
N2 - Visual imagery is implicated in the normal tactile perception of certain object properties. This is an example of cross-modal interactions that characterize normal perception. Here we review recent studies from our laboratory on cross-modal interactions between vision and touch in normally sighted humans. Positron emission tomography was used to demonstrate activation of a region of extrastriate visual cortex, near the parieto-occipital fissure, during tactile discrimination of grating orientation. Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) over this region interfered with performance of this tactile task. In both studies, visual cortical involvement was found for tactile discrimination of orientation but not spatial frequency. Thus, this cortical region is not only active during but also necessary for optimal tactile sensing of orientation. Recent findings implicating visual cortex in Braille-reading in the blind should be evaluated from this perspective.
AB - Visual imagery is implicated in the normal tactile perception of certain object properties. This is an example of cross-modal interactions that characterize normal perception. Here we review recent studies from our laboratory on cross-modal interactions between vision and touch in normally sighted humans. Positron emission tomography was used to demonstrate activation of a region of extrastriate visual cortex, near the parieto-occipital fissure, during tactile discrimination of grating orientation. Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) over this region interfered with performance of this tactile task. In both studies, visual cortical involvement was found for tactile discrimination of orientation but not spatial frequency. Thus, this cortical region is not only active during but also necessary for optimal tactile sensing of orientation. Recent findings implicating visual cortex in Braille-reading in the blind should be evaluated from this perspective.
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U2 - 10.1016/S0166-4328(02)00141-9
DO - 10.1016/S0166-4328(02)00141-9
M3 - Article
C2 - 12356442
AN - SCOPUS:0037145085
SN - 0166-4328
VL - 135
SP - 127
EP - 132
JO - Behavioural Brain Research
JF - Behavioural Brain Research
IS - 1-2
ER -