New paper in J. Neurosci suggests SII may act as thermosensory cortex

Here's the abstract and significance statement:

The location of a sensory cortex for temperature perception remains a topic of substantial debate. Both the parietal–opercular (SII) and posterior insula have been consistently implicated in thermosensory processing, but neither region has yet been identified as the locus of fine temperature discrimination. Using a perceptual learning paradigm in male and female humans, we show improvement in discrimination accuracy for subdegree changes in both warmth and cool detection over 5 d of repetitive training. We found that increases in discriminative accuracy were specific to the temperature (cold or warm) being trained. Using structural imaging to look for plastic changes associated with perceptual learning, we identified symmetrical increases in gray matter volume in the SII cortex. Furthermore, we observed distinct, adjacent regions for cold and warm discrimination, with cold discrimination having a more anterior locus than warm. The results suggest that thermosensory discrimination is supported by functionally and anatomically distinct temperature-specific modules in the SII cortex.

SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT We provide behavioral and neuroanatomical evidence that perceptual learning is possible within the temperature system. We show that structural plasticity localizes to parietal–opercular (SII), and not posterior insula, providing the best evidence to date resolving a longstanding debate about the location of putative “temperature cortex.” Furthermore, we show that cold and warm pathways are behaviorally and anatomically dissociable, suggesting that the temperature system has distinct temperature-dependent processing modules.

IEEE IDCL-EPIROB 2017

We'll be presenting two papers on robotics approaches to pain (i.e. algothims, architectures and simulations) at IDCL-EPIROB in Lisbon on Sept 18-21.

IEEE Neural Engineering 2017

We'll be presenting two papers at IEEE/EMBS Neural Engineering in Shanghai on 25-28th May.

Decoding and control of fear in the brain.

Here's our recent paper in Nature Human Behaviour on decoding and neurofeedback to reduce pain-related aversive memories in the brain. Here's a Guardian article about the work.

Using ML and real-time MEG to Understand Phantom Limb Pain

Here's a new paper - a collaboration with Takufumi Yanagisawa and other fantastic colleagues in Osaka.

 Watch a NHK video article (in Japanese)

Or read about it on LiveScience (in English)

 Induced sensorimotor brain plasticity controls pain in phantom limb patients. Takufumi Yanagisawa, Ryohei Fukuma, Ben Seymour, Koichi Hosomi, Haruhiko Kishima, Takeshi Shimizu, Hiroshi Yokoi, Masayuki Hirata, Toshiki Yoshimine, Yukiyasu Kamitani, Youichi Saitoh. Nature Communications 7, Article number: 13209 (2016) doi:10.1038/ncomms13209

URL: http://rdcu.be/l39w