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Cortical Representation of Evoked Potentials Relative to Conscious Sensory Responses, and of Somatosensory Qualities — in Man

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Neurophysiology of Consciousness

Part of the book series: Contemporary Neuroscientists ((CN))

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Abstract

The study of cortical evoked potential and neuronal unit responses to sensory stimuli can give us essential information about the locations and types of projections to the cortex and about the physiological mechanisms activated by such projections. By themselves, however, such studies cannot establish the relationship between neuronal activities and the production of conscious sensory experiences. Obviously this can be done only by direct validations of the electrophysiological actions against the other independent variable, the subjective experience of the human subject. Indeed, since sensory projections and their cortical responses would be expected to subserve other functions in addition to that of conscious sensory experience, it should be no surprise to find dissociations between the occurrence of certain evoked electrophysiological responses to stimuli and the eliciting of a subjective response. The clearest example of this is seen in the responses to certain muscle afferents. Group I muscle afferents have been found to elicit evoked responses in primary somatosensory or closely related cortex (Amassian and Berlin, 1958; Oscarsson and Rosen, 1963, 1966; Albe-Fessard, 1967; Swett and Bourassa, 1967). Yet these inputs do not elicit any subjective experience of motion, position, muscle length, or any other sensation in man (Brindley and Merton, 1960; Gelfan and Carter, 1967). Also, in contrast to other somatic inputs, the group I afferent inputs could not produce behavioral (Giaquinto, Pompeiano, and Swett, 1963) or conditional learned responses in the cat (Swett and Bourassa, 1967). The projection to the cortex of group I muscle-spindle afferent impulses, as well as of other somatic afferents, may of course serve in the integration and organization of movements mediated by the cortex, without giving rise to any subjective sensory experience (e.g. Oscarsson, 1965; Albe-Fessard, 1967; Kornhuber, 1971). The actual subjective experience of position and movement would depend on other inputs, especially those originating in and about the joints (Skoglund, 1956; Provins, 1958, Mountcastle and Powell, 1959).

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Authors
  1. B. Libet
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  2. W. W. Alberts
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  3. E. W. Wright Jr.
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  4. M. Lewis
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  5. B. Feinstein
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Libet, B., Alberts, W.W., Wright, E.W., Lewis, M., Feinstein, B. (1993). Cortical Representation of Evoked Potentials Relative to Conscious Sensory Responses, and of Somatosensory Qualities — in Man. In: Neurophysiology of Consciousness. Contemporary Neuroscientists. Birkhäuser, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-0355-1_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-0355-1_6

  • Publisher Name: Birkhäuser, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4612-6722-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4612-0355-1

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