Modeling human primary somatosensory cortex using population Receptive Fields.

In the current study, we apply population Receptive Field modeling to somatosensory vibrotactile stimulation, using 7 Tesla functional MRI. We find somatotopic structures within primary somatosensory cortical areas BA3, BA1, and BA2. Furthermore, the receptive field sizes describe tactile information integration and allows for the direct assessment of processing hierarchy within primary somatosensory cortex. This finding is further supported by the estimated HRFs, showing that the BOLD response is quickest to emerge in BA3 which is known to receive primary input from the thalamus.