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The part of the brain that integrates tactile information is found

The part of the brain located in the posterior parietal cortex is called the ventral intraparietal area, and its discovery will help to understand the human body’s episodes of disorientation.

Staff | June 24, 2010

Imagine an insect touching your skin while you have your eyes closed. Your brain is able to exactly pinpoint where the bug is located in the space around you and, in turn, quickly move your hand to bat it away. This process requires the brain to process two pieces of information: the tactile sensation it receives from the skin and the information about the position of the body in order to properly direct the hand towards its target.

Now, for the first time ever, a team of researchers has succeeded in identifying the part of the brain responsible for integrating the reaction to a tactile stimulus with the motor reaction of our body. It is a part of the brain located in the posterior parietal cortex called the ventral intraparietal area. These findings were recently published in the journal Current Biology, and the study’s authors believe they will help to better understand the syndromes of disorientation that affect the body.

The study was led by Azañón Elena, from the University of Barcelona, and Salvador Soto Faraco, ICREA Professor at Barcelona’s Pompeu Fabra University, in collaboration with the British scientists Patrick Haggard and Matthew Longo of University College London. This video explains the research carried out by this team.

The study will promote further knowledge about how the human brain locates the body’s sense of touch and how this information can help improve the diagnosis and treatment of syndromes that involve a patient's confusion about his or her own body and its surrounding space.

Reference article:

Azañón, Elena; Longo, Matthew; Soto-Faraco, Salvador; Haggard, Patrick (2010), The Posterior Parietal Cortex remaps touch into external space. Current Biology (2010)

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