Juliane Farthouat1, Roberto Martuzzi2,
Wietske van der Zwaag, 1,3, Sebastian Dieguez2, Silvio
Ionta2, Olaf Blanke2, Rolf Gruetter, 1,3
1CIBM, EPFL, Lausanne, Vaud,
Switzerland; 2Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience, EPFL,
Lausanne, Vaud, Switzerland; 3Radiology, Universit de Lausanne,
Lausanne, Vaud, Switzerland
Identification
of digit representation in primary somatosensory cortex is hampered by the
small distances between finger representations and the high inter-subject
variability. In this study, the high BOLD sensitivity and spatial resolution
available at ultra-high field were employed for somatotopic mapping using a
natural somatosensory stimulus. Consistent somatotopic maps were acquired in
BA 3b for four individual subjects as well as in BA 2 for two subjects.
Digits representations were located consecutively in the brain, with the
thumb positioned most anterior, inferior and distal. Inter-digit Euclidian
distance was XX XX mm (mean stderr).