Event-related potential evidence for tactile orientation processing in the human brain

It is well known that information on stimulus orientation plays an important role in sensory processing. However, the neural mechanisms underlying somatosensory orientation perception are poorly understood. Adaptation has been widely used as a tool for examining sensitivity to specific features of sensory stimuli. Using the adaptation paradigm, we measured event-related potentials (ERPs) in response to tactile orientation stimuli presented pseudo-randomly to the right-hand palm in trials with all the same or different orientations. Twenty participants were asked to count the tactile orientation stimuli. The results showed that the adaptation-related N60 component was observed around contralateral central-parietal areas, possibly indicating orientation processing in the somatosensory regions. Conversely, the adaptation-related N120 component was identified bilaterally across hemispheres, suggesting the involvement of the frontoparietal circuitry in further tactile orientation processing. P300 component was found across the whole brain in all conditions and was associated with task demands, such as attention and stimulus counting. These findings help provide an understanding of the mechanisms of tactile orientation processing in the human brain.