SPATIALLY MODULATED TOUCH RESPONSES IN PARIETAL CORTEX

Cortical neurons with low-threshold, cutaneous receptive fields on the fingers were recorded in areas 5 and 7b of the parietal lobe in two a wake monkeys, trained in a visually guided reach task. 72% (81/113) of the cells responded when targets displayed on a videomonitor were act ively touched. Of these, 20 neurons discharged preferentially when tar get contact was made on one side of the screen compared with the other . This spatial modulation of the cutaneous modality may have originate d in neighboring joint-related neurons which were directionally select ive.