HIERARCHICAL SOMATOSENSORY PROCESSING

Recent studies of the postcentral and additional somatosensory cortice s support a hierarchical scheme for information processing. In the pos tcentral gyrus, the complexity of receptive field properties increases with caudal progression from area 1. It has been reported that the an terior bank of the intraparietal sulcus, the caudalmost part of the po stcentral gyrus, is responsible for the systematic integration of bila teral body parts, as well as of somatic and visual information.