Somatotopic representation of the tongue in human secondary somatosensory cortex

Effects of hypocapnia and hypercapnia on human somatosensory processing

The present study investigated the effects of hypocapnia and hypercapnia on human somatosensory processing by utilizing somatosensory evoked magnetic fields (SEFs) with magnetoencephalography (MEG). Thirteen volunteers participated in two experiments separately to measure respiratory and cardiovascular data and SEFs. Both experiments consisted of a combination of normal and rapid respiratory rhythms and two inspiratory gas conditions (air and a hypercapnic gas); normal breathing with air (NB), rapid breathing with air (RB), normal breathing with the hypercapnic gas (NB+Gas), and rapid breathing with gas (RB+Gas). Partial pressures of end-tidal CO₂ (P_ETCO2) increased during inhaling the hypercapnic gas and decreased during RB, but the RB+Gas condition continued to cause elevated PETCO₂ compared with the baseline. Subsequently, middle cerebral artery blood (MCA) velocity using transcranial Doppler changed as well, while mean MCA velocity increased under the RB+Gas condition. The peak amplitude of the M60 component in SEFs was also significantly larger under with-gas than without-gas conditions, irrespective of the respiratory frequency. These results suggest that there is a close relationship between cerebral blood flow and neural activity of the M60 component in SEFs. This study provides evidence to further understanding on one of the neural mechanisms of hypercapnia.

The difference in hemodynamic responses between dominant and non-dominant hands during muscle contraction and relaxation: An fNIRS study

The present study used functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), and investigated the differences in neural activation of ipsi- or contralateral hemispheres between right dominant and left non-dominant hands among right-handed subjects using consecutive motor tasks with muscle contraction and relaxation. The subjects performed tasks under four conditions: (1) right hand up (R-Up), (2) left hand up (L-Up), (3) right hand down (R-Down), and (4) left hand down (L-Down). The peak amplitude of oxy-Hb was significantly larger at the contralateral than ipsilateral hemisphere in the premotor area (PM) under the R-Up condition, and no significant differences were observed between contra- and ipsilateral hemispheres under the L-Up condition. In addition, the peak amplitude was more negative at the contra- than ipsilateral hemisphere in the PM under the R-Down condition, while the peak amplitude was significantly more negative at the ipsi- than contralateral hemisphere in the PM under the L-Down condition. These results suggest that the PM of the left hemisphere among right-handed subjects plays an important role in muscle contraction and relaxation with force control.

Functional mapping and effective connectivity of the human operculum

The operculum, defined as the cortex adjacent to the insula, is a large structure encompassing three lobes, with a recognized role in a variety of neurologic and psychiatric conditions. Its complex functions include sensory, motor, autonomic and cognitive processing. In humans, these are extended with the addition of language. These functions are implemented by highly specialized neuronal populations and their widespread connections, which our study aims at mapping in detail. We studied a group of 31 patients that were explored with intracranial electrodes during the pre-surgical workup for drug-resistant epilepsy. We have selected the subset of contacts implanted in non-epileptogenic opercular cortex and we analyzed the neurophysiological and behavioral responses to direct electrical stimulation. The functional mapping was performed by applying 1 Hz and 50 Hz electrical stimulation on 252 contact pairs and recording the threshold for evoking clinical effects. The effective connectivity was assessed using cortico-cortical evoked potentials elicited by single-pulse electrical stimulation in a subset of 19 patients. The locations of the effects grouped in twelve distinct semiological classes were analyzed. The most frequent effects evoked by stimulation of the frontal operculum were language related (29%). The Rolandic area produced most often oropharyngeal symptoms (47%), the parietal operculum produced somatosensory effects (67%), while the temporal evoked auditory (58%) semiology. The connectivity pattern was complex, with these structures having widespread ipsilateral and contralateral projections. The local connections between the opercular subregions and with the insula, as well as with more distant areas like the cingulate gyrus, were distinguished by strength and between-subjects consistency. In conclusion, we demonstrate specific opercular functionality, distinct from the one of the insular cortex. The study is complemented by a literature review on the opercular functional connectome in human and non-human primates.

Cortical Mechanisms of Tongue Sensorimotor Functions in Humans: A Review of the Magnetoencephalography Approach

The tongue plays important roles in a variety of critical human oral functions, including speech production, swallowing, mastication and respiration. These sophisticated tongue movements are in part finely regulated by cortical entrainment. Many studies have examined sensorimotor processing in the limbs using magnetoencephalography (MEG), which has high spatiotemporal resolution. Such studies have employed multiple methods of analysis, including somatosensory evoked fields (SEFs), movement-related cortical fields (MRCFs), event-related desynchronization/synchronization (ERD/ERS) associated with somatosensory stimulation or movement and cortico-muscular coherence (CMC) during sustained movement. However, the cortical mechanisms underlying the sensorimotor functions of the tongue remain unclear, as contamination artifacts induced by stimulation and/or muscle activity within the orofacial region complicates MEG analysis in the oral region. Recently, several studies have obtained MEG recordings from the tongue region using improved stimulation methods and movement tasks. In the present review, we provide a detailed overview of tongue sensorimotor processing in humans, based on the findings of recent MEG studies. In addition, we review the clinical applications of MEG for sensory disturbances of the tongue caused by damage to the lingual nerve. Increased knowledge of the physiological and pathophysiological mechanisms underlying tongue sensorimotor processing may improve our understanding of the cortical entrainment of human oral functions.

Effects of mastication on human somatosensory processing: A study using somatosensory-evoked potentials

The aim of the present study was to investigate the effects of mastication on somatosensory processing using somatosensory-evoked potentials (SEPs). Fourteen healthy subjects received a median nerve stimulation at the right wrist under two conditions: Mastication and Control. SEPs were recorded in five sessions for approximately seven minutes: Pre, Post 1, 2, 3, and 4. Subjects were asked to chew gum for five minutes after one session in Mastication. Control included the same five sessions. The amplitudes and latencies of P14, N20, P25, N35, P45, and N60 components at C3', frontal N30 component at Fz, and P100 and N140 components at Pz were analyzed. The amplitude of P45-N60 was significantly smaller at Post 1, 2, 3, and 4 than at Pre in Control, but not in Mastication. The latency of P25 was significantly longer at Post 2, 3, and 4 than at Pre in Control, but not in Mastication. The latency of P100 was significantly longer at Post 2 than at Pre in Control, but not in Mastication. These results suggest the significant effects of mastication on the neural activity of human somatosensory processing.

Effects of aerobic exercise under different thermal conditions on human somatosensory processing

The present study aimed to investigate the effects of aerobic exercise on human somatosensory processing recorded by somatosensory evoked potentials (SEPs) under temperate [TEMP, 20°C and 40% relative humidity (RH)] and hot (HOT, 35°C and 30% RH) environments. Fifteen healthy subjects performed 4 × 15-min bouts of a moderate cycling exercise [mean power output: 156.5 ± 7.7 (SE) W], with a 10-min rest period and received a posterior tibial nerve stimulation at the left ankle before and after each exercise bout; SEPs were recorded in five sessions; 1st (pre), 2nd (post-1st exercise bout), 3rd (post-2nd exercise bout), 4th (post-3rd exercise bout), and 5th (post-4th exercise bout). The peak latencies and amplitudes of the P37, N50, P60, and N70 components at Cz were evaluated. The latencies of P37, N50, P60, and N70 were significantly shorter with the repetition of aerobic exercise, and these shortened latencies were significantly greater in the HOT condition than in the TEMP condition (P37: 3rd, P < 0.05, and 5th, P < 0.01; P60: 4th, P < 0.05, and 5th, P < 0.01; N70: 4th, P < 0.05, and 5th, P < 0.001). No significant differences were observed in the amplitudes of any SEP component under either thermal condition. These results suggest that the conduction velocity of the ascending somatosensory input was accelerated by increases in body temperature, and aerobic exercise did not alter the strength of neural activity in cortical somatosensory processing.

Robust brain parcellation using sparse representation on resting-state fMRI

Resting-state fMRI (rs-fMRI) has been widely used to segregate the brain into individual modules based on the presence of distinct connectivity patterns. Many parcellation methods have been proposed for brain parcellation using rs-fMRI, but their results have been somewhat inconsistent, potentially due to various types of noise. In this study, we provide a robust parcellation method for rs-fMRI-based brain parcellation, which constructs a sparse similarity graph based on the sparse representation coefficients of each seed voxel and then uses spectral clustering to identify distinct modules. Both the local time-varying BOLD signals and whole-brain connectivity patterns may be used as features and yield similar parcellation results. The robustness of our method was tested on both simulated and real rs-fMRI datasets. In particular, on simulated rs-fMRI data, sparse representation achieved good performance across different noise levels, including high accuracy of parcellation and high robustness to noise. On real rs-fMRI data, stable parcellation of the medial frontal cortex (MFC) and parietal operculum (OP) were achieved on three different datasets, with high reproducibility within each dataset and high consistency across these results. Besides, the parcellation of MFC was little influenced by the degrees of spatial smoothing. Furthermore, the consistent parcellation of OP was also well corresponding to cytoarchitectonic subdivisions and known somatotopic organizations. Our results demonstrate a new promising approach to robust brain parcellation using resting-state fMRI by sparse representation.

Tongue somatosensory-evoked potentials: evaluation of the afferent trigeminal pathway in patients with early multiple sclerosis

The aim of this study was to determine the efficacy of tongue somatosensory-evoked potentials (tSSEPs) in evaluation of afferent trigeminal pathway in patients with early multiple sclerosis (MS). The tSSEP was performed on 10 healthy volunteers and 10 patients with the first symptom of MS. Data were compared between the groups, and tSSEP findings of patients with MS were correlated with clinical and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data. Among 10 patients, 2 (20%) had clinically evident involvement of the brainstem, 5 (50%) had brainstem lesions on brain MRI, while 9 (90%) had prolonged latencies on tSSEP. Of the 8 patients with no clinical evidence of brainstem pathology, 7 (88%) had prolonged latencies/conduction block on tSSEP. Patients had statistically significant prolongation of N1, P1, and N2 latencies for stimulation of the right side and N2 latency for stimulation of the left side compared to healthy controls. The tSSEP is an efficient method for evaluating the afferent trigeminal pathway in patients with early MS. This study provides evidence that lesions of the afferent trigeminal pathway are more frequently found by tSSEP than by clinical examination or MRI.

Somatosensory processing of the tongue in humans

We review research on somatosensory (tactile) processing of the tongue based on data obtained using non-invasive neurophysiological and neuroimaging methods. Technical difficulties in stimulating the tongue, due to the noise elicited by the stimulator, the fixation of the stimulator, and the vomiting reflex, have necessitated the development of specialized devices. In this article, we show the brain activity relating to somatosensory processing of the tongue evoked by such devices. More recently, the postero-lateral part of the tongue has been stimulated, and the brain response compared with that on stimulation of the antero-lateral part of the tongue. It is likely that a difference existed in somatosensory processing of the tongue, particularly around primary somatosensory cortex, Brodmann area 40, and the anterior cingulate cortex.