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.