Beyond sense-specific processing: decoding texture in the brain from touch and sonified movement.

Texture, a fundamental object attribute, is perceived through multisensory information including touch and auditory cues. Coherent perceptions may rely on shared texture representations across different senses in the brain. To test this hypothesis, we delivered haptic textures coupled with a sound synthesizer to generate real-time textural sounds.

A new patterned air-flow device to reveal the network for tactile motion coding using fMRI.

Background: Studying brain processes underlying tactile perception induced by natural-like stimulation is challenging yet crucial to closely match real-world situations.

New Method: We developed a computer-controlled pneumatic device that allows the delivery of complex airflow patterns on subject's body, through a MR-compatible system fixed on an independent clippable mounting device. The intensity of stimulation as well as the timing of each of the four air channels are completely programmable and independent, allowing the precise control and modularity of the airflow delivery.

Neuronal Encoding of Multisensory Motion Features in the Rat Associative Parietal Cortex.

Motion perception is facilitated by the interplay of various sensory channels. In rodents, the cortical areas involved in multisensory motion coding remain to be identified. Using voltage-sensitive-dye imaging, we revealed a visuo-tactile convergent region that anatomically corresponds to the associative parietal cortex (APC).

Sensory-evoked propagating waves of activity in the primary sensory cortices: poorly understood, yet ubiquitous.

Any sensory stimulus evokes a propagating wave of activity in the corresponding sensory cortex that exceeds its topographical boundaries within the primary sensory map. Hama and colleagues (Hama N, Kawai M, Ito S-I, Hirota A. J Neurophysiol 119: 1934-1946, 2018) provided a first study, in the tactile modality, of the interactions between two successively evoked waves.