Abstract
It is a truism that grasping a nearby object with the hand, and examining and identifying its features by touch, is a sensorimotor action of great complexity and sophistication. We cannot use the hand in this way unless the brain receives a continuous inflow of proprioceptive and tactile sensory information, mostly generated by the movement itself, which specifies the position of the hand in space, and the contact it makes with the object. Nor can the sensory information needed to identify the form and surface features of this object be collected efficiently without using the appropriate exploratory movements of the fingers. It has been known for a century that this intelligent, adaptive manual action depends on the integrity of a large wedge of neocortex surrounding the central sulcus of the primate hemisphere, directed movements being determined by precentral cortex, and touch and proprioception requiring minimally an intact postcentral cortex. However, it is still not clear whether the integration of sensory and motor information that underlies the execution of a dextrous manual task, begins first in the sensorimotor cortex, or earlier, in the thalamus. The pattern of thalamocortical projections to the sensorimotor cortex should provide clues to this problem.
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© 1991 Macmillan Publishers Limited
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Darian-Smith, I., Darian-Smith, C. (1991). Distribution of Thalamic Input to the Sensorimotor Cortex of the Macaque Monkey. In: Franzén, O., Westman, J. (eds) Information Processing in the Somatosensory System. Wenner-Gren Center International Symposium Series. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-11597-6_12
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-11597-6_12
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