Hand and face somatotopy shown using MRI-safe vibrotactile stimulation with a novel Soft Pneumatic Actuator (SPA)-Skin interface

Abstract

AbstractThe exact somatotopy of the human facial representation in the primary somatosensory cortex (S1) remains debated. One reason that progress has been hampered is due the methodological challenge of how to apply automated vibrotactile stimuli to face areas in a manner that is: 1) reliable despite different curvature depending on the face location; and 2) MR-compatible and free of MR-interference artefacts when applied in the MR head-coil. Here we overcame this challenge by using soft pneumatic actuator (SPA) technology. SPAs are made of a soft silicon material and can be in- or deflated by means of airflow, have a small diameter, and are flexible in structure, enabling good skin contact even on curved body surfaces (as on the face). Here, we aimed to provide a methodological advance by providing automated tactile vibration stimulation inside the head-coil of the MRI. As a sanity check, we first mapped the well-characterised S1 finger layout using this novel device. We found that tactile stimulation of the fingers elicited characteristic somatotopic finger activations in S1, validating the use of our SPA-setup to map somatotopic representations. Ultimately, we used the device to automatically and systematically deliver somatosensory stimulation to different face locations. We found that the forehead representation was least distance from the representation of the hand. Within the face representation, we found that the lip representation is most distant from the forehead representation, with the chin represented in between. Together our results show that, by providing vibrotactile stimulation using the SPA-technology, we are able to reveal clear somatotopic representational patterns.