Proprioceptive head posture-related processing in human polysensory cortical areas.

Besides visual input and vestibular afferents, proprioceptive input from muscle spindle receptors of the neck region contributes to the perception of egocentric space. Using fMRI we performed a neck muscle vibration paradigm in humans in order to detect brain areas involved in processing changes of the head position in relation to the rest of the body. We identified a network of primary and secondary cortical areas: (I) regions that presumably receive direct proprioceptive thalamic input such as areas 3a, 2, S2 and the parieto-insular vestibular cortex (PIVC), (II) foci in the intraparietal sulcus, motor and premotor areas, and the frontal eye field (FEF). Activation of the former reflect early stages of proprioceptive processing, nevertheless these areas contain polysensory subdivisions such as area 3aNv, which also receives vestibular afferents. Together with area PIVC and the vestibular field in area 2 (2v), area 3aNv constitutes the inner vestibular circuit, an interconnected cortical triangle of polysensory areas that project to the posterior parietal cortex (PPC), which is known to be involved in polysensory integration. With respect to possible analogies in the monkey, we speculate that the activation we observed in the PPC is closely related to the LIP and VIP regions of the macaque.

Human cortical areas involved in sustaining perceptual stability during smooth pursuit eye movements.

Because both, eye movements and object movements induce an image motion on the retina, eye movements must be compensated to allow a coherent and stable perception of our surroundings. The inferential theory of perception postulates that retinal image motion is compared with an internal reference signal related to eye movements. This mechanism allows to distinguish between the potential sources producing retinal image motion. Referring to this theory, we investigated referential calculation during smooth pursuit eye movements (SPEM) in humans using event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). The blood oxygenation level dependent (BOLD) response related to SPEM in front of a stable background was measured for different parametric steps of preceding motion stimuli and therefore assumed for different states of the referential system. To achieve optimally accurate anatomy and more detectable fMRI signal changes in group analysis, we applied cortex-based statistics both to all brain volumes and to defined regions of interest. Our analysis revealed that the activity in a temporal region as well as the posterior parietal cortex (PPC) depended on the velocity of the preceding stimuli. Previous single-cell recordings in monkeys demonstrated that the visual posterior sylvian area (VPS) is relevant for perceptual stability. The activation apparent in our study thus may represent a human analogue of this area. The PPC is known as being strongly related to goal-directed eye movements. In conclusion, temporal and parietal cortical areas may be involved in referential calculation and thereby in sustaining visual perceptual stability during eye movements.

Human vestibular cortex as identified with caloric stimulation in functional magnetic resonance imaging.

Anatomic and electrophysiological studies in monkeys have yielded a detailed map of cortex areas receiving vestibular afferents. In contrast, comparatively little is known about the cortical representation of the human vestibular system. In this study we applied caloric stimulation and fMRI to further characterize human cortical vestibular areas and to test for hemispheric dominance of vestibular information processing. For caloric vestibular stimulation we used cold nitrogen to avoid susceptibility artifacts induced by water calorics. Right and left side vestibular stimulation was repetitively performed inducing a nystagmus for at least 90 s after the end of the stimulation in all subjects. Only the first 60 s of this nystagmus period was included for statistical analysis and compared with the baseline condition. Activation maps revealed a cortical network with right hemispheric dominance, which in all subjects comprised the temporoparietal junction extending into the posterior insula and, furthermore, the anterior insula, pre- and postcentral gyrus, areas in the parietal lobe, the ventrolateral portion of the occipital lobe, and the inferior frontal gyrus extending into the inferior part of the precentral sulcus. In conclusion, caloric stimulation in fMRI reveals a widespread cortical network involved in vestibular signal processing corresponding to the findings from animal experiments and previous functional imaging studies in humans. Furthermore, this study demonstrates a strong right hemispheric dominance of vestibular cortex areas regardless of the stimulated side, consistent with the current view of a rightward asymmetrical cortical network for spatial orientation.