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Touching Motion: rTMS on the Human Middle Temporal Complex Interferes with Tactile Speed Perception

Basso, Demis and Pavan, Andrea and Ricciardi, Emiliano and Fagioli, Sabrina and Vecchi, Tomaso and Miniussi, Carlo and Pietrini, Pietro Touching Motion: rTMS on the Human Middle Temporal Complex Interferes with Tactile Speed Perception. Brain Topography, 25 (4). pp. 389-398. ISSN 0896-0267 (2012)

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Abstract

Brain functional and psychophysical studies have clearly demonstrated that visual motion perception relies on the activity of the middle temporal complex (hMT+). However, recent studies have shown that hMT+ seems to be also activated during tactile motion perception, suggesting that this visual extrastriate area is involved in the processing and integration of motion, irrespective of the sensorial modality. In the present study, we used repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) to assess whether hMT+ plays a causal role in tactile motion processing. Blindfolded participants detected changes in the speed of a grid of tactile moving points with their finger (i.e. tactile modality). The experiment included three different conditions: a control condition with no TMS and two TMS conditions, i.e. hMT+-rTMS and posterior parietal cortex (PPC)-rTMS. Accuracies were significantly impaired during hMT+-rTMS but not in the other two conditions (No-rTMS or PPC-rTMS), moreover, thresholds for detecting speed changes were significantly higher in the hMT+-rTMS with respect to the control TMS conditions. These findings provide stronger evidence that the activity of the hMT+ area is involved in tactile speed processing, which may be consistent with the hypothesis of a supramodal role for that cortical region in motion processing.

Item Type: Article
Identification Number: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10548-012-0223-4
Uncontrolled Keywords: Repetitive TMS, Speed detection, Tactile, Temporal lobe
Subjects: R Medicine > RC Internal medicine > RC0321 Neuroscience. Biological psychiatry. Neuropsychiatry
Research Area: Computer Science and Applications
Depositing User: Caterina Tangheroni
Date Deposited: 18 Nov 2015 10:45
Last Modified: 13 Sep 2016 09:48
URI: http://eprints.imtlucca.it/id/eprint/2916

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