Judging roughness by sight--a 7-Tesla fMRI study on responsivity of the primary somatosensory cortex during observed touch of self and others.

ABSTRACT: Observing another person being touched activates our own somatosensory system. Whether the primary somatosensory cortex (S1) is also activated during the observation of passive touch, and which subregions of S1 are responsible for self- and other-related observed touch is currently unclear. In our study, we first aimed to clarify whether observing passive touch without any action component can robustly increase activity in S1. Secondly, we investigated whether S1 activity only increases when touch of others is observed, or also when touch of one's own body is observed. We were particularly interested in which subregions of S1 are responsible for either process. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging at 7 Tesla to measure S1 activity changes when participants observed videos of their

SUBMITTER: Kuehn E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6869993 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature