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The Journal of Neuroscience, November 29, 2006, 26(48):12596-12601; doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.4275-06.2006

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Behavioral/Systems/Cognitive
Neural Coding of Tactile Decisions in the Human Prefrontal Cortex

Burkhard Pleger,¹ Christian C. Ruff,^1,3 Felix Blankenburg,¹ Sven Bestmann,^1,2 Katja Wiech,^1,4 Klaas E. Stephan,¹ Almudena Capilla,^1,5 Karl J. Friston,¹ and Raymond J. Dolan¹

¹Wellcome Center of Neuroimaging and ²Sobell Department of Motor Neuroscience and Movement Disorders, Institute of Neurology, and ³Department of Psychology, Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, London WC1N 3AR, United Kingdom, ⁴Department of Human Anatomy and Genetics, Oxford University, Oxford OX1 3QX, United Kingdom, and ⁵Center of Magnetoencephalography, Complutense University of Madrid, 28040 Madrid, Spain

Correspondence should be addressed to Burkhard Pleger, Wellcome Department of Imaging Neuroscience, Institute of Neurology, University College London, 12 Queen Square, London WC1N 3BG, UK. Email: b.pleger{at}fil.ion.ucl.ac.uk

The neural processes underlying tactile decisions in the human brain remain elusive. We addressed this question in a functional magnetic resonance imaging study using a somatosensory discrimination task, requiring participants to compare the frequency of two successive tactile stimuli. Tactile stimuli per se engaged somatosensory, parietal, and frontal cortical regions. Using a statistical model that accounted for the relative difference in frequencies (i.e., Weber fraction) and discrimination accuracy (i.e., correct or incorrect), we show that trial-by-trial relative frequency difference is represented linearly by activity changes in the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, and bilateral anterior insular cortices. However, a circumscribed region within the left DLPFC showed a different response pattern expressed as activity changes that were monotonically related to relative stimulation difference only for correct but not for incorrect trials. Our findings suggest that activity in the left DLPFC encodes stimulus representations that underlie veridical tactile decisions in humans.

Key words: tactile decision; tactile discrimination; Weber fraction; somatosensory cortex; dorsolateral prefrontal cortex; functional magnetic resonance imaging

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Received Aug. 17, 2006; revised Oct. 28, 2006; accepted Oct. 30, 2006.

Correspondence should be addressed to Burkhard Pleger, Wellcome Department of Imaging Neuroscience, Institute of Neurology, University College London, 12 Queen Square, London WC1N 3BG, UK. Email: b.pleger{at}fil.ion.ucl.ac.uk

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