Sensorimotor processing and reference frame transformations in the human brain
Final Report Abstract
The skin is the border between ourselves and the world. Touch is therefore a central sensory modality for body representation. Body representation, in turn, is important because the brain must direct the body to interact with the world. Current research about touch and movement have been largely conducted in separate fields. For instance, tactile processing is often investigated in the context of multisensory integration. On the other hand, sensory guidance of movement is usually investigated with visual paradigms. The present project sought to better understand the relationship of touch, body, and movement. The project had three foci: The first focus addressed the long-standing idea that the brain plans movements separately for each effector and, accordingly, dedicates separate brain regions to relating sensory information to the planning of each individual effector. Using fMRI and EEG, we showed that this idea was due to the selective investigation of eye vs. hand movements in prior research. We showed, in contrast, that hand and foot movements are indeed processed largely by the same brain regions of posterior parietal cortex, the main region responsible for motor planning. We further demonstrated that similar processing principles govern movement planning towards visual and tactile targets. The second focus addressed the transformation of tactile-sensory information into movement. This transformation comprises the integration of different types of spatial and body-related information, integration of top-down (“intentional”) modulation of sensory processing, and decision making about different response options. Using behavioral methods, motion tracking, and functional magnetic resonance imaging, we defined the factors that influence humans process the location of touch. While it was previously thought that the brain automatically derives the 3D spatial location of a touch and uses this location information to attribute touch to the different parts of the body, we found that this 3D location is not used in tactile processing; instead, several other factors determine where on the body a touch is felt. Maybe the most striking result is that where we feel a touch is in part determined by which body parts we can respond with. Thus, how we represent our body’s action possibilities influences how we feel touch on the skin. The third focus was on developing an overarching framework that integrates touch and movement. Current models of motor control feature a direct integration of movement and sensory information in feedback control loops. One part of this loop is state estimation, conceptualized as an estimate of the status of both world and body. We propose that posterior parietal cortex separates body and world into two poles of a rostral-caudal gradient of brain organization geared towards body processing vs. object interaction. The two functions require opposite transformations in space. Body processing requires that information about the world is projected onto the body, resulting in body-related coding of space and objects relative to body parts. Object interaction, in contrast, requires that information about the body is projected into the world, resulting in “external” coding of the body relative to objects in the world. The new lab in Bielefeld (once established) offered new experimental possibilities which allowed extending the project’s research. We were able to investigate aspects of tactile-motor and visuo-motor development in children aged 5-12; we were able to separate active and passive movement; and we developed new paradigms to directly relate tactile and motor processing.
Publications
- (2014). Motor coordination uses external spatial coordinates independent of developmental vision. Cognition, 132(1), 1–15
Heed, T., & Röder, B.
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2014.03.005) - (2014). Using time to investigate space: a review of tactile temporal order judgments as a window onto spatial processing in touch. Frontiers in Psychology, 5, 76
Heed, T., & Azañón, E.
(See online at https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00076) - (2015). Integration of anatomical and external response mappings explains crossing effects in tactile localization: A probabilistic modeling approach. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 23(2), 387–404
Badde, S., Heed, T., & Röder, B.
(See online at https://doi.org/10.3758/s13423-015-0918-0) - (2015). Reach Trajectories Characterize Tactile Localization for Sensorimotor Decision Making. The Journal of Neuroscience, 35(40), 13648–13658
Brandes, J., & Heed, T.
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1873-14.2015) - (2015). Tactile remapping: from coordinate transformation to integration in sensorimotor processing. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 19(5), 251–258
Heed, T., Buchholz, V. N., Engel, A. K., & Röder, B.
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2015.03.001) - (2016). Functional versus effector-specific organization of the human posterior parietal cortex: revisited. Journal of Neurophysiology, 116(4), 1885–1899
Heed, T., Leone, F. T. M., Toni, I., & Medendorp, W. P.
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1152/jn.00312.2014) - (2016). Towards explaining spatial touch perception: Weighted integration of multiple location codes. Cognitive Neuropsychology, 33(1–2), 1–22
Badde, S., & Heed, T.
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1080/02643294.2016.1168791) - (2017). Abstract spatial, but not body-related, visual information guides bimanual coordination. Scientific Reports, 7(1), 16732
Brandes, J., Rezvani, F., & Heed, T.
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-16860-x) - (2019). External location of touch is constructed post-hoc based on limb choice. bioRxiv, 549832
Maij, F., Medendorp, W. P., & Heed, T.
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1101/549832) - (2019). Feeling a Touch to the Hand on the Foot. Current Biology, 29(9), 1491- 1497
Badde, S., Röder, B., & Heed, T.
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2019.02.060) - (2019). No effect of triple-pulse TMS medial to intraparietal sulcus on online correction for target perturbations during goal-directed hand and foot reaches. Plos One, 14(10), e0223986
Marigold, D. S., Lajoie, K., & Heed, T.
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0223986) - (2019). Online sensory feedback during active search improves tactile localization. bioRxiv, 590539
Fuchs, X., Wulff, D. U., & Heed, T.
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1101/590539) - (2019). Protracted development of visuoproprioceptive integration for uni-and bimanual motor coordination. bioRxiv, 601435
Martel, M., Ossandón, J. P., Habets, B., & Heed, T.
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1101/601435) - (2019). State Estimation in Posterior Parietal Cortex: Distinct Poles of Environmental and Bodily States. Progress in Neurobiology
Medendorp, W. P., & Heed, T.
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pneurobio.2019.101691)
