Imaging human touch

Abstract

Since the early 20th century researchers have used techniques to visualize the neural organization of the human touch system. Imaging human touch covers research from the earliest known work involving electrical stimulation mapping to more recent techniques such as event-related potentials, magnetoencephalography, positron emission tomography, and functional magnetic resonance imaging. Topics include somatotopy, the cortical processing of perceptual attributes such as shape, texture, and hardness, the neural bases of tactile illusions as well as the time course of somatosensory processing