Neural basis of haptic perception

Abstract

A major challenge in neuroscience is to understand the neural basis of behavior. The problem is multifaceted. First one must understand which afferent type(s) and cortical pathways are involved in the aspect of perception that you want to understand. Then one must understand how information is represented and coded in the neural responses. The earliest attempts at addressing the neural pathways underlying perception relied on lesion studies in which animals were trained to perform specific behavioral tasks and then were retested following the ablations. If the animal could not perform the task then the area that was ablated was deemed essential for the behavior. More recently researchers use functional imaging techniques to address these questions. Understanding the neural codes underlying behavior has been elusive. The intellectual breakthrough came from studies that combined psychophysical studies in humans with neurophysiological studies in monkeys [1, 2].