Texture is encoded in precise temporal spiking patterns in primate somatosensory cortex.

ABSTRACT: Humans are exquisitely sensitive to the microstructure and material properties of surfaces. In the peripheral nerves, texture information is conveyed via two mechanisms: coarse textural features are encoded in spatial patterns of activation that reflect their spatial layout, and fine features are encoded in highly repeatable, texture-specific temporal spiking patterns evoked as the skin moves across the surface. Here, we examined whether this temporal code is preserved in the responses of neurons in somatosensory cortex. We scanned a diverse set of everyday textures across the fingertip of awake macaques while recording the responses evoked in individual cortical neurons. We found that temporal spiking patterns are highly repeatable across multiple presentations of the same texture, with m

SUBMITTER: Long KH 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8921276 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature