Université de Fribourg

Use-dependent cortical processing from fingertips in touchscreen phone users

Gindrat, Anne-Dominique ; Chytiris, Magali ; Balerna, Myriam ; Rouiller, Eric M. ; Ghosh, Arko

In: Current Biology, 2015, vol. 25, no. 1, p. 109–116

Cortical activity allotted to the tactile receptors on fingertips conforms to skilful use of the hand [1, 2 and 3]. For instance, in string instrument players, the somatosensory cortical activity in response to touch on the little fingertip is larger than that in control subjects [1]. Such plasticity of the fingertip sensory representation is not limited to extraordinary skills and occurs in...