1
|
Fabio C, Salemme R, Farnè A, Miller LE. Alpha oscillations reflect similar mapping mechanisms for localizing touch on hands and tools. iScience 2024; 27:109092. [PMID: 38405611 PMCID: PMC10884914 DOI: 10.1016/j.isci.2024.109092] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/02/2023] [Revised: 12/07/2023] [Accepted: 01/30/2024] [Indexed: 02/27/2024] Open
Abstract
It has been suggested that our brain re-uses body-based computations to localize touch on tools, but the neural implementation of this process remains unclear. Neural oscillations in the alpha and beta frequency bands are known to map touch on the body in external and skin-centered coordinates, respectively. Here, we pinpointed the role of these oscillations during tool-extended sensing by delivering tactile stimuli to either participants' hands or the tips of hand-held rods. To disentangle brain responses related to each coordinate system, we had participants' hands/tool tips crossed or uncrossed at their body midline. We found that midline crossing modulated alpha (but not beta) band activity similarly for hands and tools, also involving a similar network of cortical regions. Our findings strongly suggest that the brain uses similar oscillatory mechanisms for mapping touch on the body and tools, supporting the idea that body-based neural processes are repurposed for tool use.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Cécile Fabio
- Integrative Multisensory Perception Action & Cognition Team of the Lyon Neuroscience Research, Center INSERM U1028 CNRS U5292 University of Lyon 1, Lyon, France
- Department for Cognitive Neuroscience, Faculty of Biology, Bielefeld University, Bielefeld, Germany
| | - Romeo Salemme
- Integrative Multisensory Perception Action & Cognition Team of the Lyon Neuroscience Research, Center INSERM U1028 CNRS U5292 University of Lyon 1, Lyon, France
- Hospices Civils de Lyon, Neuro-immersion, Lyon, France
| | - Alessandro Farnè
- Integrative Multisensory Perception Action & Cognition Team of the Lyon Neuroscience Research, Center INSERM U1028 CNRS U5292 University of Lyon 1, Lyon, France
- Hospices Civils de Lyon, Neuro-immersion, Lyon, France
| | - Luke E. Miller
- Integrative Multisensory Perception Action & Cognition Team of the Lyon Neuroscience Research, Center INSERM U1028 CNRS U5292 University of Lyon 1, Lyon, France
- Hospices Civils de Lyon, Neuro-immersion, Lyon, France
- Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Nijmegen, the Netherlands
| |
Collapse
|
2
|
Miller LE, Fabio C, de Vignemont F, Roy A, Medendorp WP, Farnè A. A Somatosensory Computation That Unifies Limbs and Tools. eNeuro 2023; 10:ENEURO.0095-23.2023. [PMID: 37848289 PMCID: PMC10668222 DOI: 10.1523/eneuro.0095-23.2023] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/22/2023] [Revised: 09/13/2023] [Accepted: 09/25/2023] [Indexed: 10/19/2023] Open
Abstract
It is often claimed that tools are embodied by their user, but whether the brain actually repurposes its body-based computations to perform similar tasks with tools is not known. A fundamental computation for localizing touch on the body is trilateration. Here, the location of touch on a limb is computed by integrating estimates of the distance between sensory input and its boundaries (e.g., elbow and wrist of the forearm). As evidence of this computational mechanism, tactile localization on a limb is most precise near its boundaries and lowest in the middle. Here, we show that the brain repurposes trilateration to localize touch on a tool, despite large differences in initial sensory input compared with touch on the body. In a large sample of participants, we found that localizing touch on a tool produced the signature of trilateration, with highest precision close to the base and tip of the tool. A computational model of trilateration provided a good fit to the observed localization behavior. To further demonstrate the computational plausibility of repurposing trilateration, we implemented it in a three-layer neural network that was based on principles of probabilistic population coding. This network determined hit location in tool-centered coordinates by using a tool's unique pattern of vibrations when contacting an object. Simulations demonstrated the expected signature of trilateration, in line with the behavioral patterns. Our results have important implications for how trilateration may be implemented by somatosensory neural populations. We conclude that trilateration is likely a fundamental spatial computation that unifies limbs and tools.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Luke E Miller
- Integrative Multisensory Perception Action and Cognition Team-ImpAct, Lyon Neuroscience Research Center, Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale Unité 1028, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique Unité 5292, 69500 Bron, France
- UCBL, University of Lyon 1, 69100 Villeurbanne, France
- Neuro-immersion, Hospices Civils de Lyon, 69500 Bron, France
- Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University, 6525 GD, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
| | - Cécile Fabio
- Integrative Multisensory Perception Action and Cognition Team-ImpAct, Lyon Neuroscience Research Center, Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale Unité 1028, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique Unité 5292, 69500 Bron, France
- UCBL, University of Lyon 1, 69100 Villeurbanne, France
- Neuro-immersion, Hospices Civils de Lyon, 69500 Bron, France
| | - Frédérique de Vignemont
- Institut Jean Nicod, Department of Cognitive Studies, Ecole Normale Superieure, Paris Sciences et Lettres University, 75005 Paris, France
| | - Alice Roy
- Laboratoire Dynamique du Langage, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Unité Mixte de Recherche 5596, 69007 Lyon, France
| | - W Pieter Medendorp
- Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University, 6525 GD, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
| | - Alessandro Farnè
- Integrative Multisensory Perception Action and Cognition Team-ImpAct, Lyon Neuroscience Research Center, Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale Unité 1028, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique Unité 5292, 69500 Bron, France
- UCBL, University of Lyon 1, 69100 Villeurbanne, France
- Neuro-immersion, Hospices Civils de Lyon, 69500 Bron, France
- Center for Mind/Brain Sciences, University of Trento, 38068 Rovereto, Italy
| |
Collapse
|
3
|
Abstract
Abstract
The sense of touch is not restricted to the body but can also extend to external objects. When we use a handheld tool to contact an object, we feel the touch on the tool and not in the hand holding the tool. The ability to perceive touch on a tool actually extends along its entire surface, allowing the user to accurately localize where it is touched similarly as they would on their body. Although the neural mechanisms underlying the ability to localize touch on the body have been largely investigated, those allowing to localize touch on a tool are still unknown. We aimed to fill this gap by recording the electroencephalography signal of participants while they localized tactile stimuli on a handheld rod. We focused on oscillatory activity in the alpha (7–14 Hz) and beta (15–30 Hz) ranges, as they have been previously linked to distinct spatial codes used to localize touch on the body. Beta activity reflects the mapping of touch in skin-based coordinates, whereas alpha activity reflects the mapping of touch in external space. We found that alpha activity was solely modulated by the location of tactile stimuli applied on a handheld rod. Source reconstruction suggested that this alpha power modulation was localized in a network of fronto-parietal regions previously implicated in higher-order tactile and spatial processing. These findings are the first to implicate alpha oscillations in tool-extended sensing and suggest an important role for processing touch in external space when localizing touch on a tool.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Cécile Fabio
- ImpAct, Lyon Neuroscience Research Center, France
- University of Lyon 1, France
| | - Romeo Salemme
- ImpAct, Lyon Neuroscience Research Center, France
- University of Lyon 1, France
- Hospices Civils de Lyon, Neuro-immersion, France
| | - Eric Koun
- ImpAct, Lyon Neuroscience Research Center, France
- University of Lyon 1, France
- Hospices Civils de Lyon, Neuro-immersion, France
| | - Alessandro Farnè
- ImpAct, Lyon Neuroscience Research Center, France
- University of Lyon 1, France
- Hospices Civils de Lyon, Neuro-immersion, France
- University of Trento, Rovereto, Italy
| | - Luke E. Miller
- ImpAct, Lyon Neuroscience Research Center, France
- University of Lyon 1, France
- Hospices Civils de Lyon, Neuro-immersion, France
- Donders Institute for Brain, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
| |
Collapse
|
4
|
Miller LE, Fabio C, Ravenda V, Bahmad S, Koun E, Salemme R, Luauté J, Bolognini N, Hayward V, Farnè A. Somatosensory Cortex Efficiently Processes Touch Located Beyond the Body. Curr Biol 2019; 29:4276-4283.e5. [PMID: 31813607 DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2019.10.043] [Citation(s) in RCA: 35] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/22/2019] [Revised: 09/30/2019] [Accepted: 10/21/2019] [Indexed: 01/24/2023]
Abstract
The extent to which a tool is an extension of its user is a question that has fascinated writers and philosophers for centuries [1]. Despite two decades of research [2-7], it remains unknown how this could be instantiated at the neural level. To this aim, the present study combined behavior, electrophysiology and neuronal modeling to characterize how the human brain could treat a tool like an extended sensory "organ." As with the body, participants localize touches on a hand-held tool with near-perfect accuracy [7]. This behavior is owed to the ability of the somatosensory system to rapidly and efficiently use the tool as a tactile extension of the body. Using electroencephalography (EEG), we found that where a hand-held tool was touched was immediately coded in the neural dynamics of primary somatosensory and posterior parietal cortices of healthy participants. We found similar neural responses in a proprioceptively deafferented patient with spared touch perception, suggesting that location information is extracted from the rod's vibrational patterns. Simulations of mechanoreceptor responses [8] suggested that the speed at which these patterns are processed is highly efficient. A second EEG experiment showed that touches on the tool and arm surfaces were localized by similar stages of cortical processing. Multivariate decoding algorithms and cortical source reconstruction provided further evidence that early limb-based processes were repurposed to map touch on a tool. We propose that an elementary strategy the human brain uses to sense with tools is to recruit primary somatosensory dynamics otherwise devoted to the body.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Luke E Miller
- Integrative Multisensory Perception Action & Cognition Team-ImpAct, Lyon Neuroscience Research Center, INSERM U1028, CNRS U5292, 16 Avenue Doyen Lépine, Bron 69676, France; University of Lyon 1, 43 Boulevard du 11 Novembre 1918, Villeurbanne 69100, France; Hospices Civils de Lyon, Neuro-immersion, 16 Avenue Doyen Lépine, Bron 69676, France.
| | - Cécile Fabio
- Integrative Multisensory Perception Action & Cognition Team-ImpAct, Lyon Neuroscience Research Center, INSERM U1028, CNRS U5292, 16 Avenue Doyen Lépine, Bron 69676, France; University of Lyon 1, 43 Boulevard du 11 Novembre 1918, Villeurbanne 69100, France
| | - Valeria Ravenda
- Integrative Multisensory Perception Action & Cognition Team-ImpAct, Lyon Neuroscience Research Center, INSERM U1028, CNRS U5292, 16 Avenue Doyen Lépine, Bron 69676, France; University of Lyon 1, 43 Boulevard du 11 Novembre 1918, Villeurbanne 69100, France; Department of Psychology & Milan Center for Neuroscience-NeuroMi, University of Milano Bicocca, Building U6, 1 Piazza dell'Ateneo Nuovo, Milan 20126, Italy
| | - Salam Bahmad
- Integrative Multisensory Perception Action & Cognition Team-ImpAct, Lyon Neuroscience Research Center, INSERM U1028, CNRS U5292, 16 Avenue Doyen Lépine, Bron 69676, France; University of Lyon 1, 43 Boulevard du 11 Novembre 1918, Villeurbanne 69100, France
| | - Eric Koun
- Integrative Multisensory Perception Action & Cognition Team-ImpAct, Lyon Neuroscience Research Center, INSERM U1028, CNRS U5292, 16 Avenue Doyen Lépine, Bron 69676, France; University of Lyon 1, 43 Boulevard du 11 Novembre 1918, Villeurbanne 69100, France; Hospices Civils de Lyon, Neuro-immersion, 16 Avenue Doyen Lépine, Bron 69676, France
| | - Romeo Salemme
- Integrative Multisensory Perception Action & Cognition Team-ImpAct, Lyon Neuroscience Research Center, INSERM U1028, CNRS U5292, 16 Avenue Doyen Lépine, Bron 69676, France; University of Lyon 1, 43 Boulevard du 11 Novembre 1918, Villeurbanne 69100, France; Hospices Civils de Lyon, Neuro-immersion, 16 Avenue Doyen Lépine, Bron 69676, France
| | - Jacques Luauté
- Integrative Multisensory Perception Action & Cognition Team-ImpAct, Lyon Neuroscience Research Center, INSERM U1028, CNRS U5292, 16 Avenue Doyen Lépine, Bron 69676, France; University of Lyon 1, 43 Boulevard du 11 Novembre 1918, Villeurbanne 69100, France; Hospices Civils de Lyon, Neuro-immersion, 16 Avenue Doyen Lépine, Bron 69676, France
| | - Nadia Bolognini
- Department of Psychology & Milan Center for Neuroscience-NeuroMi, University of Milano Bicocca, Building U6, 1 Piazza dell'Ateneo Nuovo, Milan 20126, Italy; Laboratory of Neuropsychology, IRCSS Istituto Auxologico Italiano, 28 Via G. Mercalli, Milan 20122, Italy
| | - Vincent Hayward
- Sorbonne Université, Institut des Systèmes Intelligents et de Robotique (ISIR), 4 Place Jussieu, Paris 75005, France; Centre for the Study of the Senses, School of Advanced Study, University of London, Senate House, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HU, UK
| | - Alessandro Farnè
- Integrative Multisensory Perception Action & Cognition Team-ImpAct, Lyon Neuroscience Research Center, INSERM U1028, CNRS U5292, 16 Avenue Doyen Lépine, Bron 69676, France; University of Lyon 1, 43 Boulevard du 11 Novembre 1918, Villeurbanne 69100, France; Hospices Civils de Lyon, Neuro-immersion, 16 Avenue Doyen Lépine, Bron 69676, France; Center for Mind/Brain Sciences, University of Trento, 31 Corso Bettini, Rovereto 38068, Italy
| |
Collapse
|
5
|
Wegrzyn P, Fabio C, Peralta A, Faro C, Borenstein M, Nicolaides KH. Placental volume in twin and triplet pregnancies measured by three-dimensional ultrasound at 11 + 0 to 13 + 6 weeks of gestation. Ultrasound Obstet Gynecol 2006; 27:647-51. [PMID: 16652407 DOI: 10.1002/uog.2783] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/08/2023]
Abstract
OBJECTIVE To compare the placental volume at 11 + 0 to 13 + 6 weeks' gestation between singleton and multiple pregnancies and to examine the possible effect of chorionicity on placental volume. METHODS The placental volume was measured by three-dimensional (3D) ultrasound using the Virtual Organ Computer-aided AnaLysis (VOCAL) technique in 290 consecutive twin and 37 triplet pregnancies at 11 + 0 to 13 + 6 weeks of gestation. For the comparison of twin, triplet and singleton placental volumes each measurement was expressed as a multiple of the median (MoM) for singletons, previously established from the study of 417 normal fetuses at 11 + 0 to 13 + 6 weeks of gestation. RESULTS Median twin and triplet placental volumes were 1.66 and 2.28 MoM for singletons, respectively. In twins the placental volumes increased significantly with gestation from a median of 83.6 mL (5th and 95th centiles: 56.0 mL and 124.9 mL) at 11 + 0 weeks to 149.3 mL (5th and 95th centiles: 100.0 mL and 223.1 mL) at 13 + 6 weeks. The median MoM in monochorionic twins was not significantly different from that in dichorionic twins with fused placentas or dichorionic twins with separate placentas. In triplets the placental volumes increased significantly with gestation from a median of 114.9 mL (5th and 95th centiles: 77.6 mL and 170.1 mL) at 11 weeks to 217.9 mL (5th and 95th centiles: 147.2 mL and 322.5 mL) at 13 + 6 weeks. There were no significant differences in total placental volume between monochorionic and dichorionic triplets, monochorionic and trichorionic triplets, or dichorionic and trichorionic triplets. CONCLUSIONS Placental volume in multiple pregnancies does not depend on chorionicity, and the rate of placental growth between 11 and 13 + 6 weeks is not significantly different between singletons, twins and triplets. Moreover, for a given gestational age the placental volume corresponding to each fetus in twins and triplets is 83% and 76%, respectively, of the placental volume in singletons.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- P Wegrzyn
- Harris Birthright Research Centre for Fetal Medicine, King's College Hospital Medical School, London, UK
| | | | | | | | | | | |
Collapse
|