Meeting Banner
Abstract #0010

Within Digit Somatotopy of the Human Somatosensory Cortex using fMRI at 7T

Rosa M. Sanchez Panchuelo1, Julien Besle2, Richard Bowtell3, Denis Schluppeck2, Susan Francis3

1Sir Peter Mansfield Magnetic Resonance Centre , University of Nottingham, Nottingham, United Kingdom; 2School of Psychology, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, United Kingdom; 3Sir Peter Mansfield Magnetic Resonance Centre, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, United Kingdom


The increased BOLD contrast-to-noise ratio at 7T has been exploited to measure fine topographic organisation in individual subjects within the index finger representation (base-to-tip) in human somatosensory cortex (S1) at 1.5mm isotropic resolution using a travelling wave paradigm. Subjects were scanned twice to assess reproducibility, and data displayed on a flattened representation of the cortex. An organized somatotopy within the cortical area corresponding to the index finger was found for two subjects, with phase reversals in the map which are consistent with mirrored representations in adjacent sub-regions 3a/3b/1/2 of S1. The results were reproducible across sessions for all subjects.