Ventral intraparietal area of the macaque: congruent visual and somatic response properties

A Whole-Brain Topographic Ontology

It is a common view that the intricate array of specialized domains in the ventral visual pathway is innately prespecified. What this review postulates is that it is not. We explore the origins of domain specificity, hypothesizing that the adult brain emerges from an interplay between a domain-general map-based architecture, shaped by intrinsic mechanisms, and experience. We argue that the most fundamental innate organization of cortex in general, and not just the visual pathway, is a map-based topography that governs how the environment maps onto the brain, how brain areas interconnect, and ultimately, how the brain processes information.

Schizophrenia and the bodily self

Despite the historically consolidated psychopathological perspective, on the one hand, contemporary organicistic psychiatry often highlights abnormalities in neurotransmitter systems like dysregulation of dopamine transmission, neural circuitry, and genetic factors as key contributors to schizophrenia. Neuroscience, on the other, has so far almost entirely neglected the first-person experiential dimension of this syndrome, mainly focusing on high-order cognitive functions, such as executive function, working memory, theory of mind, and the like. An alternative view posits that schizophrenia is a self-disorder characterized by anomalous self-experience and awareness. This view may not only shed new light on the psychopathological features of psychosis but also inspire empirical research targeting the bodily and neurobiological changes underpinning this disorder. Cognitive neuroscience can today address classic topics of phenomenological psychopathology by adding a new level of description, finally enabling the correlation between the first-person experiential aspects of psychiatric diseases and their neurobiological roots. Recent empirical evidence on the neurobiological basis of a minimal notion of the self, the bodily self, is presented. The relationship between the body, its motor potentialities and the notion of minimal self is illustrated. Evidence on the neural mechanisms underpinning the bodily self, its plasticity, and the blurring of self-other distinction in schizophrenic patients is introduced and discussed. It is concluded that brain-body function anomalies of multisensory integration, differential processing of self- and other-related bodily information mediating self-experience, might be at the basis of the disruption of the self disorders characterizing schizophrenia.

Visual perceptual learning is enhanced by training in the illusory far space

Visual objects in the peripersonal space (PPS) are perceived faster than farther ones appearing in the extrapersonal space (EPS). This shows preferential processing for visual stimuli near our body. Such an advantage should favour visual perceptual learning occurring near, as compared with far from observers, but opposite evidence has been recently provided from online testing protocols, showing larger perceptual learning in the far space. Here, we ran two laboratory-based experiments investigating whether visual training in PPS and EPS has different effects. We used the horizontal Ponzo Illusion to create a lateralized depth perspective while participants completed a visual search task in which they reported whether or not a specific target object orientation (e.g., a triangle pointing upwards) was present among distractors. This task was completed before and after a training phase in either the (illusory) near or far space for 1 h. In Experiment 1, the near space was in the left hemispace, whereas in Experiment 2, it was in the right. Results showed that, in both experiments, participants were more accurate after training in the far space, whereas training in the near space led to either improvement in the far space (Experiment 1), or no change (Experiment 2). Moreover, we found a larger visual perceptual learning when stimuli were presented in the left compared with the right hemispace. Differently from visual processing, visual perceptual learning is more effective in the far space. We propose that depth is a key dimension that can be used to improve human visual learning.

Neuroanatomical correlates of peripersonal space: bridging the gap between perception, action, emotion and social cognition

Peripersonal space (PPS) is a construct referring to the portion of space immediately surrounding our bodies, where most of the interactions between the subject and the environment, including other individuals, take place. Decades of animal and human neuroscience research have revealed that the brain holds a separate representation of this region of space: this distinct spatial representation has evolved to ensure proper relevance to stimuli that are close to the body and prompt an appropriate behavioral response. The neural underpinnings of such construct have been thoroughly investigated by different generations of studies involving anatomical and electrophysiological investigations in animal models, and, recently, neuroimaging experiments in human subjects. Here, we provide a comprehensive anatomical overview of the anatomical circuitry underlying PPS representation in the human brain. Gathering evidence from multiple areas of research, we identified cortical and subcortical regions that are involved in specific aspects of PPS encoding.We show how these regions are part of segregated, yet integrated functional networks within the brain, which are in turn involved in higher-order integration of information. This wide-scale circuitry accounts for the relevance of PPS encoding in multiple brain functions, including not only motor planning and visuospatial attention but also emotional and social cognitive aspects. A complete characterization of these circuits may clarify the derangements of PPS representation observed in different neurological and neuropsychiatric diseases.

Cortical cellular encoding of thermotactile integration

Recent evidence suggests that primary sensory cortical regions play a role in the integration of information from multiple sensory modalities. How primary cortical neurons integrate different sources of sensory information is unclear, partly because non-primary sensory input to a cortical sensory region is often weak or modulatory. To address this question, we take advantage of the robust representation of thermal (cooling) and tactile stimuli in mouse forelimb primary somatosensory cortex (fS1). Using a thermotactile detection task, we show that the perception of threshold-level cool or tactile information is enhanced when they are presented simultaneously, compared with presentation alone. To investigate the cortical cellular correlates of thermotactile integration, we performed in vivo extracellular recordings from fS1 in awake resting and anesthetized mice during unimodal and bimodal stimulation of the forepaw. Unimodal stimulation evoked thermal- or tactile- specific excitatory and inhibitory responses of fS1 neurons. The most prominent features of combined thermotactile stimulation are the recruitment of unimodally silent fS1 neurons, non-linear integration features, and response dynamics that favor longer response durations with additional spikes. Together, we identify quantitative and qualitative changes in cortical encoding that may underlie the improvement in perception of thermotactile surfaces during haptic exploration.

Differential clustering of visual and choice- and saccade-related activity in macaque V3A and CIP

Neurons in sensory and motor cortices tend to aggregate in clusters with similar functional properties. Within the primate dorsal ("where") pathway, an important interface between three-dimensional (3-D) visual processing and motor-related functions consists of two hierarchically organized areas: V3A and the caudal intraparietal (CIP) area. In these areas, 3-D visual information, choice-related activity, and saccade-related activity converge, often at the single-neuron level. Characterizing the clustering of functional properties in areas with mixed selectivity, such as these, may help reveal organizational principles that support sensorimotor transformations. Here we quantified the clustering of visual feature selectivity, choice-related activity, and saccade-related activity by performing correlational and parametric comparisons of the responses of well-isolated, simultaneously recorded neurons in macaque monkeys. Each functional domain showed statistically significant clustering in both areas. However, there were also domain-specific differences in the strength of clustering across the areas. Visual feature selectivity and saccade-related activity were more strongly clustered in V3A than in CIP. In contrast, choice-related activity was more strongly clustered in CIP than in V3A. These differences in clustering may reflect the areas' roles in sensorimotor processing. Stronger clustering of visual and saccade-related activity in V3A may reflect a greater role in within-domain processing, as opposed to cross-domain synthesis. In contrast, stronger clustering of choice-related activity in CIP may reflect a greater role in synthesizing information across functional domains to bridge perception and action.NEW & NOTEWORTHY The occipital and parietal cortices of macaque monkeys are bridged by hierarchically organized areas V3A and CIP. These areas support 3-D visual transformations, carry choice-related activity during 3-D perceptual tasks, and possess saccade-related activity. This study quantifies the functional clustering of neuronal response properties within V3A and CIP for each of these domains. The findings reveal domain-specific cross-area differences in clustering that may reflect the areas' roles in sensorimotor processing.

Comparison of peripersonal space in front and rear spaces

The space immediately around the body, referred to as the peripersonal space (PPS), plays a crucial role in interactions with external objects and in avoiding unsafe situations. This study aimed to investigate whether the size of the PPS changes depending on direction, with a particular focus on the disparity between the front and rear spaces. A vibrotactile stimulus was presented to measure PPS while a task-irrelevant auditory stimulus (probe) approached the participant. In addition, to evaluate the effect of the probe, a baseline condition was used in which only tactile stimuli were presented. The results showed that the auditory facilitation effect of the tactile stimulus was greater in the rear condition than in the front condition. Conversely, the performance on tasks related to auditory distance perception and sound speed estimation did not differ between the two directions, indicating that the difference in the auditory facilitation effect between directions cannot be explained by these factors. These findings indicate that the strength of audio-tactile integration is greater in the rear space compared to the front space, suggesting that the representation of the PPS differed between the front and rear spaces.

Subcortical contributions to the sense of body ownership

The sense of body ownership (i.e. the feeling that our body or its parts belong to us) plays a key role in bodily self-consciousness and is believed to stem from multisensory integration. Experimental paradigms such as the rubber hand illusion have been developed to allow the controlled manipulation of body ownership in laboratory settings, providing effective tools for investigating malleability in the sense of body ownership and the boundaries that distinguish self from other. Neuroimaging studies of body ownership converge on the involvement of several cortical regions, including the premotor cortex and posterior parietal cortex. However, relatively less attention has been paid to subcortical structures that may also contribute to body ownership perception, such as the cerebellum and putamen. Here, on the basis of neuroimaging and neuropsychological observations, we provide an overview of relevant subcortical regions and consider their potential role in generating and maintaining a sense of ownership over the body. We also suggest novel avenues for future research targeting the role of subcortical regions in making sense of the body as our own.

Temporal Electroencephalography Traits Dissociating Tactile Information and Cross-Modal Congruence Effects

To explore whether temporal electroencephalography (EEG) traits can dissociate the physical properties of touching objects and the congruence effects of cross-modal stimuli, we applied a machine learning approach to two major temporal domain EEG traits, event-related potential (ERP) and somatosensory evoked potential (SEP), for each anatomical brain region. During a task in which participants had to identify one of two material surfaces as a tactile stimulus, a photo image that matched ('congruent') or mismatched ('incongruent') the material they were touching was given as a visual stimulus. Electrical stimulation was applied to the median nerve of the right wrist to evoke SEP while the participants touched the material. The classification accuracies using ERP extracted in reference to the tactile/visual stimulus onsets were significantly higher than chance levels in several regions in both congruent and incongruent conditions, whereas SEP extracted in reference to the electrical stimulus onsets resulted in no significant classification accuracies. Further analysis based on current source signals estimated using EEG revealed brain regions showing significant accuracy across conditions, suggesting that tactile-based object recognition information is encoded in the temporal domain EEG trait and broader brain regions, including the premotor, parietal, and somatosensory areas.

Cortico-spinal modularity in the parieto-frontal system: A new perspective on action control

Classical neurophysiology suggests that the motor cortex (MI) has a unique role in action control. In contrast, this review presents evidence for multiple parieto-frontal spinal command modules that can bypass MI. Five observations support this modular perspective: (i) the statistics of cortical connectivity demonstrate functionally-related clusters of cortical areas, defining functional modules in the premotor, cingulate, and parietal cortices; (ii) different corticospinal pathways originate from the above areas, each with a distinct range of conduction velocities; (iii) the activation time of each module varies depending on task, and different modules can be activated simultaneously; (iv) a modular architecture with direct motor output is faster and less metabolically expensive than an architecture that relies on MI, given the slow connections between MI and other cortical areas; (v) lesions of the areas composing parieto-frontal modules have different effects from lesions of MI. Here we provide examples of six cortico-spinal modules and functions they subserve: module 1) arm reaching, tool use and object construction; module 2) spatial navigation and locomotion; module 3) grasping and observation of hand and mouth actions; module 4) action initiation, motor sequences, time encoding; module 5) conditional motor association and learning, action plan switching and action inhibition; module 6) planning defensive actions. These modules can serve as a library of tools to be recombined when faced with novel tasks, and MI might serve as a recombinatory hub. In conclusion, the availability of locally-stored information and multiple outflow paths supports the physiological plausibility of the proposed modular perspective.

Neural Integration of Audiovisual Sensory Inputs in Macaque Amygdala and Adjacent Regions

Integrating multisensory inputs to generate accurate perception and guide behavior is among the most critical functions of the brain. Subcortical regions such as the amygdala are involved in sensory processing including vision and audition, yet their roles in multisensory integration remain unclear. In this study, we systematically investigated the function of neurons in the amygdala and adjacent regions in integrating audiovisual sensory inputs using a semi-chronic multi-electrode array and multiple combinations of audiovisual stimuli. From a sample of 332 neurons, we showed the diverse response patterns to audiovisual stimuli and the neural characteristics of bimodal over unimodal modulation, which could be classified into four types with differentiated regional origins. Using the hierarchical clustering method, neurons were further clustered into five groups and associated with different integrating functions and sub-regions. Finally, regions distinguishing congruent and incongruent bimodal sensory inputs were identified. Overall, visual processing dominates audiovisual integration in the amygdala and adjacent regions. Our findings shed new light on the neural mechanisms of multisensory integration in the primate brain.

Opposing influences of global and local stimulus-hand proximity on crosstalk interference in dual tasks

In contrast to traditional dualistic views of cognition, visual stimulus processing appears not independent of bodily factors such as hand positioning. For example, reduced crosstalk between two temporally overlapping tasks has been observed when the hands are moved into the attentional window alongside their respective stimuli (i.e., establishing global stimulus-hand proximity). This result indicates that hand-specific attentional processing enhancements support a more serial rather than parallel processing of the two tasks. To further elucidate the nature of these processing modulations and their effect on multitasking performance, the present study consisted of three interrelated crosstalk experiments. Experiment 1 manipulated global stimulus-hand proximity and stimulus-effect proximity orthogonally, with results demonstrating that hand proximity rather than effect proximity drives the crosstalk reduction. Experiment 2 manipulated the physical distance between both hands (i.e., varying local stimulus-hand proximity), with results showing weak evidence of increased crosstalk when both hands are close to each other. Experiment 3 tested opposing influences of global and local stimulus-hand proximity as observed in Experiment 1 and 2 rigorously within one experiment, by employing an orthogonal manipulation of these two proximity measures. Again, we observed slightly increased crosstalk for hands close to each other (replicating Experiment 2); however, in contrast to Experiment 1, the effect of global stimulus-hand proximity on the observed crosstalk was not significant this time. Taken together, the experiments support the notion of hand-specific modulations of perception-action coupling, which can either lead to more or less interference in multitasking, depending on the exact arrangement of hands and stimuli.

From rubber hands to neuroprosthetics: Neural correlates of embodiment

Our interaction with the world rests on the knowledge that we are a body in space and time, which can interact with the environment. This awareness is usually referred to as sense of embodiment. For the good part of the past 30 years, the rubber hand illusion (RHI) has been a prime tool to study embodiment in healthy and people with a variety of clinical conditions. In this paper, we provide a critical overview of this research with a focus on the RHI paradigm as a tool to study prothesis embodiment in individuals with amputation. The RHI relies on well-documented multisensory integration mechanisms based on sensory precision, where parietal areas are involved in resolving the visuo-tactile conflict, and premotor areas in updating the conscious bodily representation. This mechanism may be transferable to prosthesis ownership in amputees. We discuss how these results might transfer to technological development of sensorised prostheses, which in turn might progress the acceptability by users.

Sequential sparse autoencoder for dynamic heading representation in ventral intraparietal area

To navigate in space, it is important to predict headings in real-time from neural responses in the brain to vestibular and visual signals, and the ventral intraparietal area (VIP) is one of the critical brain areas. However, it remains unexplored in the population level how the heading perception is represented in VIP. And there are no commonly used methods suitable for decoding the headings from the population responses in VIP, given the large spatiotemporal dynamics and heterogeneity in the neural responses. Here, responses were recorded from 210 VIP neurons in three rhesus monkeys when they were performing a heading perception task. And by specifically and separately modelling the both dynamics with sparse representation, we built a sequential sparse autoencoder (SSAE) to do the population decoding on the recorded dataset and tried to maximize the decoding performance. The SSAE relies on a three-layer sparse autoencoder to extract temporal and spatial heading features in the dataset via unsupervised learning, and a softmax classifier to decode the headings. Compared with other population decoding methods, the SSAE achieves a leading accuracy of 96.8% ± 2.1%, and shows the advantages of robustness, low storage and computing burden for real-time prediction. Therefore, our SSAE model performs well in learning neurobiologically plausible features comprising dynamic navigational information.

No differences in implicit hand maps among different degrees of autistic traits

People with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) or higher levels of autistic traits have atypical characteristics in sensory processing. Atypicalities have been reported for proprioceptive judgments, which are tightly related to internal bodily representations underlying position sense. However, no research has directly investigated whether self-bodily representations are different in individuals with ASD. Implicit hand maps, estimated based on participants' proprioceptive sensations without sight of their hand, are known to be distorted such that the shape is stretched along the medio-lateral hand axis even for neurotypical participants. Here, with the view of ASD as falling on a continuous distribution among the general population, we explored differences in implicit body representations along with autistic traits by focusing on relationships between autistic traits and the magnitudes of the distortions in implicit hand maps (N ~ 100). We estimated the magnitudes of distortions in implicit hand maps both for fingers and hand surfaces on the dorsal and palmar sides of the hand. Autistic traits were measured by questionnaires (Autism Spectrum [AQ] and Empathy/Systemizing [EQ-SQ] Quotients). The distortions in implicit hand maps were replicated in our experimental situations. However, there were no significant relationships between autistic traits and the magnitudes of the distortions as well as within-individual variabilities in the maps and localization performances. Consistent results were observed from comparisons between IQ-matched samples of people with and without a diagnosis of ASD. Our findings suggest that there exist perceptual and neural processes for implicit body representations underlying position sense consistent across levels of autistic traits.

Dynamic spatial coding in parietal cortex mediates tactile-motor transformation

Movements towards touch on the body require integrating tactile location and body posture information. Tactile processing and movement planning both rely on posterior parietal cortex (PPC) but their interplay is not understood. Here, human participants received tactile stimuli on their crossed and uncrossed feet, dissociating stimulus location relative to anatomy versus external space. Participants pointed to the touch or the equivalent location on the other foot, which dissociates sensory and motor locations. Multi-voxel pattern analysis of concurrently recorded fMRI signals revealed that tactile location was coded anatomically in anterior PPC but spatially in posterior PPC during sensory processing. After movement instructions were specified, PPC exclusively represented the movement goal in space, in regions associated with visuo-motor planning and with regional overlap for sensory, rule-related, and movement coding. Thus, PPC flexibly updates its spatial codes to accommodate rule-based transformation of sensory input to generate movement to environment and own body alike.

Structural brain connectivity predicts early acute pain after mild traumatic brain injury

ABSTRACT

Mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI), is a leading cause of disability worldwide, with acute pain manifesting as one of its most debilitating symptoms. Understanding acute postinjury pain is important because it is a strong predictor of long-term outcomes. In this study, we imaged the brains of 157 patients with mTBI, following a motorized vehicle collision. We extracted white matter structural connectivity networks and used a machine learning approach to predict acute pain. Stronger white matter tracts within the sensorimotor, thalamiccortical, and default-mode systems predicted 20% of the variance in pain severity within 72 hours of the injury. This result generalized in 2 independent groups: 39 mTBI patients and 13 mTBI patients without whiplash symptoms. White matter measures collected at 6 months after the collision still predicted mTBI pain at that timepoint (n = 36). These white matter connections were associated with 2 nociceptive psychophysical outcomes tested at a remote body site-namely, conditioned pain modulation and magnitude of suprathreshold pain-and with pain sensitivity questionnaire scores. Our findings demonstrate a stable white matter network, the properties of which determine an important amount of pain experienced after acute injury, pinpointing a circuitry engaged in the transformation and amplification of nociceptive inputs to pain perception.

Sensory modality and spoken language shape reading network in blind readers of Braille

The neural basis of reading is highly consistent across many languages and scripts. Are there alternative neural routes to reading? How does the sensory modality of symbols (tactile vs. visual) influence their neural representations? We examined these questions by comparing reading of visual print (sighted group, n = 19) and tactile Braille (congenitally blind group, n = 19). Blind and sighted readers were presented with written (words, consonant strings, non-letter shapes) and spoken stimuli (words, backward speech) that varied in word-likeness. Consistent with prior work, the ventral occipitotemporal cortex (vOTC) was active during Braille and visual reading. A posterior/anterior vOTC word-form gradient was observed only in sighted readers with more anterior regions preferring larger orthographic units (words). No such gradient was observed in blind readers. Consistent with connectivity predictions, in blind compared to sighted readers, posterior parietal cortices were recruited to a greater degree and contained word-preferring patches. Lateralization of Braille in blind readers was predicted by laterality of spoken language and reading hand. The effect of spoken language increased along a cortical hierarchy, whereas effect of reading hand waned. These results suggested that the neural basis of reading is influenced by symbol modality and spoken language and support connectivity-based views of cortical function.

Contrary neuronal recalibration in different multisensory cortical areas

The adult brain demonstrates remarkable multisensory plasticity by dynamically recalibrating itself based on information from multiple sensory sources. After a systematic visual-vestibular heading offset is experienced, the unisensory perceptual estimates for subsequently presented stimuli are shifted toward each other (in opposite directions) to reduce the conflict. The neural substrate of this recalibration is unknown. Here, we recorded single-neuron activity from the dorsal medial superior temporal (MSTd), parietoinsular vestibular cortex (PIVC), and ventral intraparietal (VIP) areas in three male rhesus macaques during this visual-vestibular recalibration. Both visual and vestibular neuronal tuning curves in MSTd shifted - each according to their respective cues' perceptual shifts. Tuning of vestibular neurons in PIVC also shifted in the same direction as vestibular perceptual shifts (cells were not robustly tuned to the visual stimuli). By contrast, VIP neurons demonstrated a unique phenomenon: both vestibular and visual tuning shifted in accordance with vestibular perceptual shifts. Such that, visual tuning shifted, surprisingly, contrary to visual perceptual shifts. Therefore, while unsupervised recalibration (to reduce cue conflict) occurs in early multisensory cortices, higher-level VIP reflects only a global shift, in vestibular space.

Functional connectivity fingerprints of the frontal eye field and inferior frontal junction suggest spatial versus nonspatial processing in the prefrontal cortex

Neuroimaging evidence suggests that the frontal eye field (FEF) and inferior frontal junction (IFJ) govern the encoding of spatial and nonspatial (such as feature- or object-based) representations, respectively, both during visual attention and working memory tasks. However, it is still unclear whether such contrasting functional segregation is also reflected in their underlying functional connectivity patterns. Here, we hypothesized that FEF has predominant functional coupling with spatiotopically organized regions in the dorsal ('where') visual stream whereas IFJ has predominant functional connectivity with the ventral ('what') visual stream. We applied seed-based functional connectivity analyses to temporally high-resolving resting-state magnetoencephalography (MEG) recordings. We parcellated the brain according to the multimodal Glasser atlas and tested, for various frequency bands, whether the spontaneous activity of each parcel in the ventral and dorsal visual pathway has predominant functional connectivity with FEF or IFJ. The results show that FEF has a robust power correlation with the dorsal visual pathway in beta and gamma bands. In contrast, anterior IFJ (IFJa) has a strong power coupling with the ventral visual stream in delta, beta and gamma oscillations. Moreover, while FEF is phase-coupled with the superior parietal lobe in the beta band, IFJa is phase-coupled with the middle and inferior temporal cortex in delta and gamma oscillations. We argue that these intrinsic connectivity fingerprints are congruent with each brain region's function. Therefore, we conclude that FEF and IFJ have dissociable connectivity patterns that fit their respective functional roles in spatial versus nonspatial top-down attention and working memory control.

Supramodal Representation of the Sense of Body Ownership in the Human Parieto-Premotor and Extrastriate Cortices

The sense of body ownership, defined as the sensation that one's body belongs to oneself, is a fundamental component of bodily self-consciousness. Several studies have shown the importance of multisensory integration for the emergence of the sense of body ownership, together with the involvement of the parieto-premotor and extrastriate cortices in bodily awareness. However, whether the sense of body ownership elicited by different sources of signal, especially visuotactile and visuomotor inputs, is represented by common neural patterns remains to be elucidated. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate the existence of neural correlates of the sense of body ownership independent of the sensory modalities. Participants received tactile stimulation or executed finger movements while given synchronous and asynchronous visual feedback of their hand. We used multivoxel patterns analysis (MVPA) to decode the synchronous and asynchronous conditions with cross-classification between two modalities: the classifier was first trained in the visuotactile sessions and then tested in the visuomotor sessions, and vice versa. Regions of interest (ROIs)-based and searchlight analyses revealed significant above-chance cross-classification accuracies in the bilateral intraparietal sulcus (IPS), the bilateral ventral premotor cortex (PMv), and the left extrastriate body area (EBA). Moreover, we observed a significant positive correlation between the cross-classification accuracy in the left PMv and the difference in subjective ratings of the sense of body ownership between the synchronous and asynchronous conditions. Our findings revealed the neural representations of the sense of body ownership in the IPS, PMv, and EBA that is invariant to the sensory modalities.

Does hand position affect orienting when no action is required? An electrophysiological study

Previous research has shown that attention can be biased to targets appearing near the hand that require action responses, arguing that attention to the hand facilitates upcoming action. It is unclear whether attention orients to non-targets near the hand not requiring responses. Using electroencephalography/event-related potentials (EEG/ERP), this study investigated whether hand position affected visual orienting to non-targets under conditions that manipulated the distribution of attention. We modified an attention paradigm in which stimuli were presented briefly and rapidly on either side of fixation; participants responded to infrequent targets (15%) but not standard non-targets and either a hand or a block was placed next to one stimulus location. In Experiment 1, attention was distributed across left and right stimulus locations to determine whether P1 or N1 ERP amplitudes to non-target standards were differentially influenced by hand location. In Experiment 2, attention was narrowed to only one stimulus location to determine whether attentional focus affected orienting to non-target locations near the hand. When attention was distributed across both stimulus locations, the hand increased overall N1 amplitudes relative to the block but not selectively to stimuli appearing near the hand. However, when attention was focused on one location, amplitudes were affected by the location of attentional focus and the stimulus, but not by hand or block location. Thus, hand position appears to contribute only a non-location-specific input to standards during visual orienting, but only in cases when attention is distributed across stimulus locations.

Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation over the posterior parietal cortex improves functional recovery in nonresponsive patients: A crossover, randomized, double-blind, sham-controlled study

Background

Recent studies have shown that patients with disorders of consciousness (DoC) can benefit from repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) therapy. The posterior parietal cortex (PPC) is becoming increasingly important in neuroscience research and clinical treatment for DoC as it plays a crucial role in the formation of human consciousness. However, the effect of rTMS on the PPC in improving consciousness recovery remains to be studied.

Method

We conducted a crossover, randomized, double-blind, sham-controlled clinical study to assess the efficacy and safety of 10 Hz rTMS over the left PPC in unresponsive patients. Twenty patients with unresponsive wakefulness syndrome were recruited. The participants were randomly divided into two groups: one group received active rTMS treatment for 10 consecutive days (n = 10) and the other group received sham treatment for the same period (n = 10). After a 10-day washout period, the groups crossed over and received the opposite treatment. The rTMS protocol involved the delivery of 2000 pulses/day at a frequency of 10 Hz, targeting the left PPC (P3 electrode sites) at 90% of the resting motor threshold. The primary outcome measure was the JFK Coma Recovery Scele-Revised (CRS-R), and evaluations were conducted blindly. EEG power spectrum assessments were also conducted simultaneously before and after each stage of the intervention.

Result

rTMS-active treatment resulted in a significant improvement in the CRS-R total score (F = 8.443, p = 0.009) and the relative alpha power (F = 11.166, p = 0.004) compared to sham treatment. Furthermore, 8 out of 20 patients classified as rTMS responders showed improvement and evolved to a minimally conscious state (MCS) as a result of active rTMS. The relative alpha power also significantly improved in responders (F = 26.372, p = 0.002) but not in non-responders (F = 0.704, p = 0.421). No adverse effects related to rTMS were reported in the study.

Conclusions

This study suggests that 10 Hz rTMS over the left PPC can significantly improve functional recovery in unresponsive patients with DoC, with no reported side effects.

Clinical trial registration

www.ClinicalTrials.gov, identifier: NCT05187000.

A neurocomputational analysis of visual bias on bimanual tactile spatial perception during a crossmodal exposure

Vision and touch both support spatial information processing. These sensory systems also exhibit highly specific interactions in spatial perception, which may reflect multisensory representations that are learned through visuo-tactile (VT) experiences. Recently, Wani and colleagues reported that task-irrelevant visual cues bias tactile perception, in a brightness-dependent manner, on a task requiring participants to detect unimanual and bimanual cues. Importantly, tactile performance remained spatially biased after VT exposure, even when no visual cues were presented. These effects on bimanual touch conceivably reflect cross-modal learning, but the neural substrates that are changed by VT experience are unclear. We previously described a neural network capable of simulating VT spatial interactions. Here, we exploited this model to test different hypotheses regarding potential network-level changes that may underlie the VT learning effects. Simulation results indicated that VT learning effects are inconsistent with plasticity restricted to unisensory visual and tactile hand representations. Similarly, VT learning effects were also inconsistent with changes restricted to the strength of inter-hemispheric inhibitory interactions. Instead, we found that both the hand representations and the inter-hemispheric inhibitory interactions need to be plastic to fully recapitulate VT learning effects. Our results imply that crossmodal learning of bimanual spatial perception involves multiple changes distributed over a VT processing cortical network.

Mesoscopic architecture enhances communication across the macaque connectome revealing structure-function correspondence in the brain

Analyzing the brain in terms of organizational structures at intermediate scales provides an approach to unravel the complexity arising from interactions between its large number of components. Focusing on a wiring diagram that spans the cortex, basal ganglia, and thalamus of the macaque brain, we identify robust modules in the network that provide a mesoscopic-level description of its topological architecture. Surprisingly, we find that the modular architecture facilitates rapid communication across the network, instead of localizing activity as is typically expected in networks having community organization. By considering processes of diffusive spreading and coordination, we demonstrate that the specific pattern of inter- and intramodular connectivity in the network allows propagation to be even faster than equivalent randomized networks with or without modular structure. This pattern of connectivity is seen at different scales and is conserved across principal cortical divisions, as well as subcortical structures. Furthermore, we find that the physical proximity between areas is insufficient to explain the modular organization, as similar mesoscopic structures can be obtained even after factoring out the effect of distance constraints on the connectivity. By supplementing the topological information about the macaque connectome with physical locations, volumes, and functions of the constituent areas and analyzing this augmented dataset, we reveal a counterintuitive role played by the modular architecture of the brain in promoting global coordination of its activity. It suggests a possible explanation for the ubiquity of modularity in brain networks.

A normative model of peripersonal space encoding as performing impact prediction

Accurately predicting contact between our bodies and environmental objects is paramount to our evolutionary survival. It has been hypothesized that multisensory neurons responding both to touch on the body, and to auditory or visual stimuli occurring near them—thus delineating our peripersonal space (PPS)—may be a critical player in this computation. However, we lack a normative account (i.e., a model specifying how we ought to compute) linking impact prediction and PPS encoding. Here, we leverage Bayesian Decision Theory to develop such a model and show that it recapitulates many of the characteristics of PPS. Namely, a normative model of impact prediction (i) delineates a graded boundary between near and far space, (ii) demonstrates an enlargement of PPS as the speed of incoming stimuli increases, (iii) shows stronger contact prediction for looming than receding stimuli—but critically is still present for receding stimuli when observation uncertainty is non-zero—, (iv) scales with the value we attribute to environmental objects, and finally (v) can account for the differing sizes of PPS for different body parts. Together, these modeling results support the conjecture that PPS reflects the computation of impact prediction, and make a number of testable predictions for future empirical studies.

The brain has neurons that respond to touch on the body, as well as to auditory or visual stimuli occurring near the body. These neurons delineate a graded boundary between the near and far space. Here, we aim at understanding whether the function of these neurons is to predict future impact between the environment and body. To do so, we build a mathematical model that is statistically optimal at predicting future impact, taking into account the costs incurred by an impending collision. Then we examine if its properties are similar to those of the above-mentioned neurons. We find that the model (i) differentiates between the near and far space in a graded fashion, predicts different near/far boundary depths for different (ii) body parts, (iii) object speeds and (iv) directions, and (v) that this boundary scales with the value we attribute to environmental objects. These properties have all been described in behavioral studies and ascribed to neurons responding to objects near the body. Together, these findings suggest why the brain has neurons that respond only to objects near the body: to compute predictions of impact.

Altered Brain Function Activity in Patients With Dysphagia After Cerebral Infarction: A Resting-State Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study

Objective

Dysphagia after cerebral infarction (DYS) has been detected in several brain regions through resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI). In this study, we used two rs-fMRI measures to investigate the changes in brain function activity in DYS and their correlations with dysphagia severity.

Method

In this study, a total of 22 patients with DYS were compared with 30 patients without dysphagia (non-DYS) and matched for baseline characteristics. Then, rs-fMRI scans were performed in both groups, and regional homogeneity (ReHo) and fractional amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (fALFF) values were calculated in both groups. The two-sample t-test was used to compare ReHo and fALFF between the groups. Pearson's correlation analysis was used to determine the correlations between the ReHo and fALFF of the abnormal brain regions and the scores of the Functional Oral Intake Scale (FOIS), the Standardized Bedside Swallowing Assessment (SSA), the Videofluoroscopic Swallowing Study (VFSS), and the Penetration-Aspiration Scale (PAS).

Results

Compared with the non-DYS group, the DYS group showed decreased ReHo values in the left thalamus, the left parietal lobe, and the right temporal lobe and significantly decreased fALFF values in the right middle temporal gyrus and the inferior parietal lobule. In the DYS group, the ReHo of the right temporal lobe was positively correlated with the SSA score and the PAS score (r = 0.704, p < 0.001 and r = 0.707, p < 0.001, respectively) but negatively correlated with the VFSS score (r = −0.741, p < 0.001). The ReHo of the left parietal lobe was positively correlated with SSA and PAS (r = 0.621, p = 0.002 and r = 0.682, p < 0.001, respectively) but negatively correlated with VFSS (r = −0.679, p = 0.001).

Conclusion

The changes in the brain function activity of these regions are related to dysphagia severity. The DYS group with high ReHo values in the right temporal and left parietal lobes had severe dysphagia.

Luxotonic signals in human prefrontal cortex as a possible substrate for effects of light on mood and cognition

Studies with experimental animals have revealed a mood-regulating neural pathway linking intrinsically photosensitive retinal ganglion cells (ipRGCs) and the prefrontal cortex (PFC), involved in the pathophysiology of mood disorders. Since humans also have light-intensity-encoding ipRGCs, we asked whether a similar pathway exists in humans. Here, functional MRI was used to identify PFC regions and other areas exhibiting light-intensity-dependent signals. We report 26 human brain regions having activation that either monotonically decreases or monotonically increases with light intensity. Luxotonic-related activation occurred across the cerebral cortex, in diverse subcortical structures, and in the cerebellum, encompassing regions with functions related to visual image formation, motor control, cognition, and emotion. Light suppressed PFC activation, which monotonically decreased with increasing light intensity. The sustained time course of light-evoked PFC responses and their susceptibility to prior light exposure resembled those of ipRGCs. These findings offer a functional link between light exposure and PFC-mediated cognitive and affective phenomena.

Experimental Pain Phenotype Profiles in Community-dwelling Older Adults

OBJECTIVES

Pain sensitivity and the brain structure are critical in modulating pain and may contribute to the maintenance of pain in older adults. However, a paucity of evidence exists investigating the link between pain sensitivity and brain morphometry in older adults. The purpose of the study was to identify pain sensitivity profiles in healthy, community-dwelling older adults using a multimodal quantitative sensory testing protocol and to differentiate profiles based on brain morphometry.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

This study was a secondary analysis of the Neuromodulatory Examination of Pain and Mobility Across the Lifespan (NEPAL) study. Participants completed demographic and psychological questionnaires, quantitative sensory testing, and a neuroimaging session. A Principal Component Analysis with Varimax rotation followed by hierarchical cluster analysis identified 4 pain sensitivity clusters (the "pain clusters").

RESULTS

Sixty-two older adults ranging from 60 to 94 years old without a specific pain condition (mean [SD] age=71.44 [6.69] y, 66.1% female) were analyzed. Four pain clusters were identified characterized by (1) thermal pain insensitivity; (2) high pinprick pain ratings and pressure pain insensitivity; (3) high thermal pain ratings and high temporal summation; and (4) thermal pain sensitivity, low thermal pain ratings, and low mechanical temporal summation. Sex differences were observed between pain clusters. Pain clusters 2 and 4 were distinguished by differences in the brain cortical volume in the parieto-occipital region.

DISCUSSION

While sufficient evidence exists demonstrating pain sensitivity profiles in younger individuals and in those with chronic pain conditions, the finding that subgroups of experimental pain sensitivity also exist in healthy older adults is novel. Identifying these factors in older adults may help differentiate the underlying mechanisms contributing to pain and aging.

Direction-selective modulation of visual motion rivalry by collocated tactile motion

Early models of multisensory integration posited that cross-modal signals only converged in higher-order association cortices and that vision automatically dominates. However, recent studies have challenged this view. In this study, the significance of the alignment of motion axes and spatial alignment across visual and tactile stimuli, as well as the effect of hand visibility on visuo-tactile interactions were examined. Using binocular rivalry, opposed motions were presented to each eye and participants were required to track the perceived visual direction. A tactile motion that was either a leftward or rightward sweep across the fingerpad was intermittently presented. Results showed that tactile effects on visual percepts were dependent on the alignment of motion axes: rivalry between up/down visual motions was not modulated at all by left/right tactile motion. On the other hand, visual percepts could be altered by tactile motion signals when both modalities shared a common axis of motion: a tactile stimulus could maintain the dominance duration of a congruent visual stimulus and shorten its suppression period. The effects were also conditional on the spatial alignment of the visual and tactile stimuli, being eliminated when the tactile device was displaced 15 cm away to the right of the visual stimulus. In contrast, visibility of the hand touching the tactile stimulus facilitated congruent switches relative to a visual-only baseline but did not present a significant advantage overall. In sum, these results show a low-level sensory interaction that is conditional on visual and tactile stimuli sharing a common motion axis and location in space.

Threat Detection in Nearby Space Mobilizes Human Ventral Premotor Cortex, Intraparietal Sulcus, and Amygdala

In the monkey brain, the precentral gyrus and ventral intraparietal area are two interconnected brain regions that form a system for detecting and responding to events in nearby “peripersonal” space (PPS), with threat detection as one of its major functions. Behavioral studies point toward a similar defensive function of PPS in humans. Here, our aim was to find support for this hypothesis by investigating if homolog regions in the human brain respond more strongly to approaching threatening stimuli. During fMRI scanning, naturalistic social stimuli were presented in a 3D virtual environment. Our results showed that the ventral premotor cortex and intraparietal sulcus responded more strongly to threatening stimuli entering PPS. Moreover, we found evidence for the involvement of the amygdala and anterior insula in processing threats. We propose that the defensive function of PPS may be supported by a subcortical circuit that sends information about the relevance of the stimulus to the premotor cortex and intraparietal sulcus, where action preparation is facilitated when necessary.

Influence of Tactile Flow on Visual Heading Perception

The integration of information from different sensory modalities is crucial for successful navigation through an environment. Among others, self-motion induces distinct optic flow patterns on the retina, vestibular signals and tactile flow, which contribute to determine traveled distance (path integration) or movement direction (heading). While the processing of combined visual-vestibular information is subject to a growing body of literature, the processing of visuo-tactile signals in the context of self-motion has received comparatively little attention. Here, we investigated whether visual heading perception is influenced by behaviorally irrelevant tactile flow. In the visual modality, we simulated an observer's self-motion across a horizontal ground plane (optic flow). Tactile self-motion stimuli were delivered by air flow from head-mounted nozzles (tactile flow). In blocks of trials, we presented only visual or tactile stimuli and subjects had to report their perceived heading. In another block of trials, tactile and visual stimuli were presented simultaneously, with the tactile flow within ±40° of the visual heading (bimodal condition). Here, importantly, participants had to report their perceived visual heading. Perceived self-motion direction in all conditions revealed a centripetal bias, i.e., heading directions were perceived as compressed toward straight ahead. In the bimodal condition, we found a small but systematic influence of task-irrelevant tactile flow on visually perceived headings as function of their directional offset. We conclude that tactile flow is more tightly linked to self-motion perception than previously thought.

The origin of smiling, laughing, and crying: The defensive mimic theory

Why do we leak lubricant from the eyes to solicit comfort from others? Why do we bare our teeth and crinkle our faces to express non-aggression? The defensive mimic theory proposes that a broad range of human emotional expressions evolved originally as exaggerated, temporally extended mimics of the fast, defensive reflexes that normally protect the body surface. Defensive reflexes are so important to survival that they cannot be safely suppressed; yet they also broadcast information about an animal's internal state, information that can potentially be exploited by other animals. Once others can observe and exploit an animal's defensive reflexes, it may be advantageous to the animal to run interference by creating mimic defensive actions, thereby manipulating the behaviour of others. Through this interaction over millions of years, many human emotional expressions may have evolved. Here, human social signals including smiling, laughing and crying, are compared component-by-component with the known, well-studied features of primate defensive reflexes. It is suggested that the defensive mimic theory can adequately account for the physical form of not all, but a large range of, human emotional expression.

Postural adjustment as a function of scene orientation

Visual orientation plays an important role in postural control, but the specific characteristics of postural response to orientation remain unknown. In this study, we investigated the relationship between postural response and the subjective visual vertical (SVV) as a function of scene orientation. We presented a virtual room including everyday objects through a head-mounted display and measured head tilt around the naso-occipital axis. The room orientation varied from 165° counterclockwise to 180° clockwise around the center of display in 15° increments. In a separate session, we also conducted a rod adjustment task to record the participant's SVV in the tilted room. We applied a weighted vector sum model to head tilt and SVV error and obtained the weight of three visual cues to orientation: frame, horizon, and polarity. We found significant contributions for all visual cues to head tilt and SVV error. For SVV error, frame cues made the largest contribution, whereas polarity contribution made the smallest. For head tilt, there was no clear difference across visual cue types, although the order of contribution was similar to the SVV. These findings suggest that multiple visual cues to orientation are involved in postural control and imply different representations of vertical orientation across postural control and perception.

Task-dependent cortical activations during selective attention to audiovisual speech

Selective listening to speech depends on widespread networks of the brain, but how the involvement of different neural systems in speech processing is affected by factors such as the task performed by a listener and speech intelligibility remains poorly understood. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging to systematically examine the effects that performing different tasks has on neural activations during selective attention to continuous audiovisual speech in the presence of task-irrelevant speech. Participants viewed audiovisual dialogues and attended either to the semantic or the phonological content of speech, or ignored speech altogether and performed a visual control task. The tasks were factorially combined with good and poor auditory and visual speech qualities. Selective attention to speech engaged superior temporal regions and the left inferior frontal gyrus regardless of the task. Frontoparietal regions implicated in selective auditory attention to simple sounds (e.g., tones, syllables) were not engaged by the semantic task, suggesting that this network may not be not as crucial when attending to continuous speech. The medial orbitofrontal cortex, implicated in social cognition, was most activated by the semantic task. Activity levels during the phonological task in the left prefrontal, premotor, and secondary somatosensory regions had a distinct temporal profile as well as the highest overall activity, possibly relating to the role of the dorsal speech processing stream in sub-lexical processing. Our results demonstrate that the task type influences neural activations during selective attention to speech, and emphasize the importance of ecologically valid experimental designs.

Cognitive, Systems, and Computational Neurosciences of the Self in Motion

Navigating by path integration requires continuously estimating one's self-motion. This estimate may be derived from visual velocity and/or vestibular acceleration signals. Importantly, these senses in isolation are ill-equipped to provide accurate estimates, and thus visuo-vestibular integration is an imperative. After a summary of the visual and vestibular pathways involved, the crux of this review focuses on the human and theoretical approaches that have outlined a normative account of cue combination in behavior and neurons, as well as on the systems neuroscience efforts that are searching for its neural implementation. We then highlight a contemporary frontier in our state of knowledge: understanding how velocity cues with time-varying reliabilities are integrated into an evolving position estimate over prolonged time periods. Further, we discuss how the brain builds internal models inferring when cues ought to be integrated versus segregated-a process of causal inference. Lastly, we suggest that the study of spatial navigation has not yet addressed its initial condition: self-location.

MULTISENSORY RESPONSES IN A BELT REGION OF THE DORSAL AUDITORY CORTICAL PATHWAY

A basic function of the cerebral cortex is to receive and integrate information from different sensory modalities into a comprehensive percept of the environment. Neurons that demonstrate multisensory convergence occur across the necortex, but are especially prevalent in higher-order, association areas. However, a recent study of a cat higher-order auditory area, the dorsal zone (DZ) of auditory cortex, did not observe any multisensory features. Therefore, the goal of the present investigation was to address this conflict using recording and testing methodologies that are established for exposing and studying multisensory neuronal processing. Among the 482 neurons studied, we found that 76.6% were influenced by non-auditory stimuli. Of these neurons, 99% were affected by visual stimulation, but only 11% by somatosensory. Furthermore, a large proportion of the multisensory neurons showed integrated responses to multisensory stimulation, constituted a majority of the excitatory and inhibitory neurons encountered (as identified by the duration of their waveshape), and exhibited a distinct spatial distribution within DZ. These findings demonstrate that the dorsal zone of auditory cortex robustly exhibits multisensory properties and that the proportions of multisensory neurons encountered are consistent with those identified in other higher-order cortices.

Altered visual and haptic verticality perception in posterior cortical atrophy and Alzheimer's disease

There is increasing theoretical and empirical support for the brain combining multisensory information to determine the direction of gravity and hence uprightness. A fundamental part of the process is the spatial transformation of sensory signals between reference frames: eye-centred, head-centred, body-centred, etc. The question 'Am I the right way up?' posed by a patient with posterior cortical atrophy (PCA) suggests disturbances in upright perception, subsequently investigated in PCA and typical Alzheimer's disease (tAD) based on what looks or feels upright. Participants repeatedly aligned to vertical a rod presented either visually (visual-vertical) or haptically (haptic-vertical). Visual-vertical involved orienting a projected rod presented without or with a visual orientation cue (circle, tilted square (±18°)). Haptic-vertical involved orientating a grasped rod with eyes closed using a combination of side (left, right) and hand (unimanual, bimanual) configurations. Intraindividual uncertainty and bias defined verticality perception. Uncertainty was consistently greater in both patient groups than in control groups, and greater in PCA than tAD. Bias in the frontal plane was strongly directionally affected by visual cue tilt (visual-vertical) and grip side (haptic-vertical). A model was developed that assumed verticality information from multiple sources is combined in a statistically optimal way to produce observed uncertainties and biases. Model results suggest the mechanism that spatially transforms graviceptive information between body parts is disturbed in both patient groups. Despite visual dysfunction being typically considered the primary feature of PCA, disturbances were greater in PCA than tAD particularly for haptic-vertical, and are considered in light of posterior parietal vulnerability. KEY POINTS: The perception of upright requires accurate and precise estimates of orientation based on multiple noisy sensory signals. The question 'Am I the right way up?' posed by a patient with posterior cortical atrophy (PCA; purported 'visual variant Alzheimer's') suggests disturbances in the perception of upright. What looks or feels upright in PCA and typical Alzheimer's disease (tAD) was investigated by asking participants to repeatedly align to vertical a rod presented visually (visual-vertical) or haptically (haptic-vertical). PCA and tAD groups exhibited not only greater perceptual uncertainty than controls, but also exaggerated bias induced by tilted visual orientation cues (visual-vertical) and grip side (haptic-vertical). When modelled, these abnormalities, which were particularly evident in PCA haptic-vertical performance, were compatible with disruption of a mechanism that spatially transforms verticality information between body parts. The findings suggest an important role of posterior parietal cortex in verticality perception, and have implications for understanding spatial disorientation in dementia.

Contribution of motor and proprioceptive information to visuotactile interaction in peripersonal space during bike riding

The space immediately around the body, known as the peripersonal space (PPS), plays an important role in interactions with the environment. Specific representations are reported to be constructed in the brain. PPS expansion reportedly occurs during whole-body self-motions, such as walking; however, little is known regarding how dynamic cues in proprioceptive/motor information contribute to such phenomena. Thus, we investigated this issue using a pedaling bike situation. We defined PPS as the maximum distance at which a visual probe facilitated tactile detection at the chest. Experiment 1 compared two conditions where participants did or did not pedal the bike at a constant speed while observing an optic flow that simulated forward self-motion (pedaling and no pedaling). Experiment 2 investigated the effect of pedal resistances (high and low) while presenting the same optic flow as in Experiment 1. The results revealed that the reaction time (RT) difference (probe RT - baseline RT) was larger for the pedaling than for the no-pedaling condition. However, pedal resistance differences hardly affected the visuotactile interaction, although the participants clearly experienced differences in force. These results suggest that proprioceptive/motor cues can contribute to the modulation of PPS representation, but dynamic information included in these cues may have little influence.

The macaque ventral intraparietal area has expanded into three homologue human parietal areas

The macaque ventral intraparietal area (VIP) in the fundus of the intraparietal sulcus has been implicated in a diverse range of sensorimotor and cognitive functions such as motion processing, multisensory integration, processing of head peripersonal space, defensive behavior, and numerosity coding. Here, we exhaustively review macaque VIP function, cytoarchitectonics, and anatomical connectivity and integrate it with human studies that have attempted to identify a potential human VIP homologue. We show that human VIP research has consistently identified three, rather than one, bilateral parietal areas that each appear to subsume some, but not all, of the macaque area's functionality. Available evidence suggests that this human "VIP complex" has evolved as an expansion of the macaque area, but that some precursory specialization within macaque VIP has been previously overlooked. The three human areas are dominated, roughly, by coding the head or self in the environment, visual heading direction, and the peripersonal environment around the head, respectively. A unifying functional principle may be best described as prediction in space and time, linking VIP to state estimation as a key parietal sensorimotor function. VIP's expansive differentiation of head and self-related processing may have been key in the emergence of human bodily self-consciousness.

Frontal and parietal background connectivity and their dynamic changes account for individual differences in the multisensory representation of peripersonal space

Functional connectivity (FC) of brain networks dynamically fluctuates during both rest and task execution. Individual differences in dynamic FC have been associated with several cognitive and behavioral traits. However, whether dynamic FC also contributes to sensorimotor representations guiding body-environment interactions, such as the representation of peripersonal space (PPS), is currently unknown. PPS is the space immediately surrounding the body and acts as a multisensory interface between the individual and the environment. We used an audio-tactile task with approaching sounds to map the individual PPS extension, and fMRI to estimate the background FC. Specifically, we analyzed FC values for each stimulus type (near and far space) and its across-trial variability. FC was evaluated between task-relevant nodes of two fronto-parietal networks (the Dorsal Attention Network, DAN, and the Fronto-Parietal Network, FPN) and a key PPS region in the premotor cortex (PM). PM was significantly connected to specific task-relevant nodes of the DAN and the FPN during the audio-tactile task, and FC was stronger while processing near space, as compared to far space. At the individual level, less PPS extension was associated with stronger premotor-parietal FC during processing of near space, while the across-trial variability of premotor-parietal and premotor-frontal FC was higher during the processing of far space. Notably, only across-trial FC variability captured the near-far modulation of space processing. Our findings indicate that PM connectivity with task-relevant frontal and parietal regions and its dynamic changes participate in the mechanisms that enable PPS representation, in agreement with the idea that neural variability plays a crucial role in plastic and dynamic sensorimotor representations.

Parietal maps of visual signals for bodily action planning

The posterior parietal cortex (PPC) has long been understood as a high-level integrative station for computing motor commands for the body based on sensory (i.e., mostly tactile and visual) input from the outside world. In the last decade, accumulating evidence has shown that the parietal areas not only extract the pragmatic features of manipulable objects, but also subserve sensorimotor processing of others’ actions. A paradigmatic case is that of the anterior intraparietal area (AIP), which encodes the identity of observed manipulative actions that afford potential motor actions the observer could perform in response to them. On these bases, we propose an AIP manipulative action-based template of the general planning functions of the PPC and review existing evidence supporting the extension of this model to other PPC regions and to a wider set of actions: defensive and locomotor actions. In our model, a hallmark of PPC functioning is the processing of information about the physical and social world to encode potential bodily actions appropriate for the current context. We further extend the model to actions performed with man-made objects (e.g., tools) and artifacts, because they become integral parts of the subject’s body schema and motor repertoire. Finally, we conclude that existing evidence supports a generally conserved neural circuitry that transforms integrated sensory signals into the variety of bodily actions that primates are capable of preparing and performing to interact with their physical and social world.

On the relationship between maps and domains in inferotemporal cortex

How does the brain encode information about the environment? Decades of research have led to the pervasive notion that the object-processing pathway in primate cortex consists of multiple areas that are each specialized to process different object categories (such as faces, bodies, hands, non-face objects and scenes). The anatomical consistency and modularity of these regions have been interpreted as evidence that these regions are innately specialized. Here, we propose that ventral-stream modules do not represent clusters of circuits that each evolved to process some specific object category particularly important for survival, but instead reflect the effects of experience on a domain-general architecture that evolved to be able to adapt, within a lifetime, to its particular environment. Furthermore, we propose that the mechanisms underlying the development of domains are both evolutionarily old and universal across cortex. Topographic maps are fundamental, governing the development of specializations across systems, providing a framework for brain organization.

Altered Peripersonal Space and the Bodily Self in Schizophrenia: A Virtual Reality Study

Self-disturbances such as an anomalous perception of one's own body boundary are central to the phenomenology of schizophrenia (SZ), but measuring the spatial parameters of the hypothesized self-other boundary has proved to be challenging. Peripersonal space (PPS) refers to the immediate zone surrounding the body where the self interacts physically with the environment; the space that corresponds to hypothesized self-other boundary. PPS is represented by enhanced multisensory integration and faster reaction time (RT) for objects near the body. Thus, multisensory RT tasks can be used to estimate self-other boundary. We aimed to quantify PPS in SZ using an immersive virtual reality visuotactile RT paradigm. Twenty-four participants with SZ and 24 demographically matched controls (CO) were asked to detect tactile vibration while watching a ball approaching them, thrown by either a machine (nonsocial condition) or an avatar (social condition). Parameters of PPS were estimated from the midpoint of the spatial range where the tactile RT decreased most rapidly (size) and the gradient of the RT change at this midpoint (slope). Overall, PPS was smaller in participants with SZ compared with CO. PPS slope for participants with SZ was shallower than CO in the social but not in nonsocial condition, indicating an increased uncertainty of self-other boundary across an extended zone in SZ. Social condition also increased false alarms for tactile detection in SZ. Clinical symptoms were not clearly associated with PPS parameters. These findings suggest the context-dependent nature of weakened body boundary in SZ and underscore the importance of reconciliating objective and subjective aspects of self-disturbances.

Peripersonal space in the front, rear, left and right directions for audio-tactile multisensory integration

Peripersonal space (PPS) is important for humans to perform body–environment interactions. However, many previous studies only focused on the specific direction of the PPS, such as the front space, despite suggesting that there were PPSs in all directions. We aimed to measure and compare the peri-trunk PPS in four directions (front, rear, left, and right). To measure the PPS, we used a tactile and an audio stimulus because auditory information is available at any time in all directions. We used the approaching and receding task-irrelevant sounds in the experiment. Observers were asked to respond as quickly as possible when a tactile stimulus was applied to a vibrator on their chest. We found that peri-trunk PPS representations exist with an approaching sound, irrespective of the direction.

The Peripersonal Space in a social world

The PeriPersonal Space (PPS) has been defined as the space surrounding the body, where physical interactions with elements of the environment take place. As our world is social in nature, recent evidence revealed the complex modulation of social factors onto PPS representation. In light of the growing interest in the field, in this review we take a close look at the experimental approaches undertaken to assess the impact of social factors onto PPS representation. Our social world also influences the personal space (PS), a concept stemming from social psychology, defined as the space we keep between us and others to avoid discomfort. Here we analytically compare PPS and PS with the aim of understanding if and how they relate to each other. At the behavioral level, the multiplicity of experimental methodologies, whether well-established or novel, lead to somewhat divergent results and interpretations. Beyond behavior, we review physiological and neural signatures of PPS representation to discuss how interoceptive signals could contribute to PPS representation, as well as how these internal signals could shape the neural responses of PPS representation. In particular, by merging exteroceptive information from the environment and internal signals that come from the body, PPS may promote an integrated representation of the self, as distinct from the environment and the others. We put forward that integrating internal and external signals in the brain for perception of proximal environmental stimuli may also provide us with a better understanding of the processes at play during social interactions. Adopting such an integrative stance may offer novel insights about PPS representation in a social world. Finally, we discuss possible links between PPS research and social cognition, a link that may contribute to the understanding of intentions and feelings of others around us and promote appropriate social interactions.

Optic flow selectivity in the macaque parieto-occipital sulcus

In humans, several neuroimaging studies have demonstrated that passive viewing of optic flow stimuli activates higher-level motion areas, like V6 and the cingulate sulcus visual area (CSv). In macaque, there are few studies on the sensitivity of V6 and CSv to egomotion compatible optic flow. The only fMRI study on this issue revealed selectivity to egomotion compatible optic flow in macaque CSv but not in V6 (Cotterau et al. Cereb Cortex 27(1):330-343, 2017, but see Fan et al. J Neurosci. 35:16303-16314, 2015). Yet, it is unknown whether monkey visual motion areas MT + and V6 display any distinctive fMRI functional profile relative to the optic flow stimulation, as it is the case for the homologous human areas (Pitzalis et al., Cereb Cortex 20(2):411-424, 2010). Here, we described the sensitivity of the monkey brain to two motion stimuli (radial rings and flow fields) originally used in humans to functionally map the motion middle temporal area MT + (Tootell et al. J Neurosci 15: 3215-3230, 1995a; Nature 375:139-141, 1995b) and the motion medial parietal area V6 (Pitzalis et al. 2010), respectively. In both animals, we found regions responding only to optic flow or radial rings stimulation, and regions responding to both stimuli. A region in the parieto-occipital sulcus (likely including V6) was one of the most highly selective area for coherently moving fields of dots, further demonstrating the power of this type of stimulation to activate V6 in both humans and monkeys. We did not find any evidence that putative macaque CSv responds to Flow Fields.

Action-dependent processing of self-motion in parietal cortex of macaque monkeys

Successful interaction with the environment requires the dissociation of self-induced from externally induced sensory stimulation. Temporal proximity of action and effect is hereby often used as an indicator of whether an observed event should be interpreted as a result of own actions or not. We tested how the delay between an action (press of a touch bar) and an effect (onset of simulated self-motion) influences the processing of visually simulated self-motion in the ventral intraparietal area (VIP) of macaque monkeys. We found that a delay between the action and the start of the self-motion stimulus led to a rise of activity above the baseline activity before motion onset in a subpopulation of 21% of the investigated neurons. In the responses to the stimulus, we found a significantly lower sustained activity when the press of a touch bar and the motion onset were contiguous compared to the condition when the motion onset was delayed. We speculate that this weak inhibitory effect might be part of a mechanism that sharpens the tuning of VIP neurons during self-induced motion and thus has the potential to increase the precision of heading information that is required to adjust the orientation of self-motion in everyday navigational tasks.NEW & NOTEWORTHY Neurons in macaque ventral intraparietal area (VIP) are responding to sensory stimulation related to self-motion, e.g. visual optic flow. Here, we found that self-motion induced activation depends on the sense of agency, i.e., it differed when optic flow was perceived as self- or externally induced. This demonstrates that area VIP is well suited for study of the interplay between active behavior and sensory processing during self-motion.

Approach of visual stimuli facilitates the prediction of tactile events and suppresses beta band oscillations around the primary somatosensory area

The purpose of the present study was to investigate whether the approach of visual stimuli influences prediction of subsequent tactile events. For this purpose, we examined electroencephalograms (EEGs) during the prediction of tactile events when visual stimuli did or did not approach. Tactile stimuli were presented with a high probability (80%) of being applied to the left (or right) index finger and a low probability (20%) of being applied to the opposite index finger. In the approach condition, visual stimuli were presented towards the hand to which the high-probability tactile stimuli were presented; in the neutral condition, visual stimuli did not approach. The result of time-frequency analysis for the EEGs showed that beta band event-related spectral perturbation at the electrodes around the primary somatosensory area (C3 and C4) was suppressed about 300 ms before the presentation of a tactile stimulus and that event-related desynchronization (ERD) occurred in all conditions. Moreover, the beta band ERD of the approach condition was larger than that of the neutral condition. These results provide evidence that the approach of visual stimuli facilitates prediction itself for subsequent tactile events.