Crossref journal-article
Society for Neuroscience
The Journal of Neuroscience (393)
Abstract

We studied coactivation-based cortical plasticity at a psychophysical level in humans. For induction of plasticity, we used a protocol of simultaneous pairing of tactile stimulation to follow as closely as possible the idea of Hebbian learning. We reported previously that a few hours of tactile coactivation resulted in selective and reversible reorganization of receptive fields and cortical maps of the hindpaw representation of the somatosensory cortex of adult rats (Godde et al., 1996). In the present study, simultaneous spatial two-point discrimination was tested on the tip of the right index finger in human subjects as a marker of plastic changes. After 2 hr of coactivation we found a significant improvement in discrimination performance that was reversible within 8 hr. Reduction of the duration of the coactivation protocol revealed that 30 min was not sufficient to drive plastic changes. Repeated application of coactivation over 3 consecutive days resulted in a delayed recovery indicating stabilization of the improvement over time. Perceptual changes were highly selective because no transfer of improved performance to fingers that were not stimulated was found. The results demonstrate the potential role of sensory input statistics (i.e., their probability of occurrence and spatiotemporal relationships) in the induction of cortical plasticity without involving cognitive factors such as attention or reinforcement.

Bibliography

Godde, B., Stauffenberg, B., Spengler, F., & Dinse, H. R. (2000). Tactile Coactivation-Induced Changes in Spatial Discrimination Performance. The Journal of Neuroscience, 20(4), 1597–1604.

Authors 4
  1. Ben Godde (first)
  2. Beate Stauffenberg (additional)
  3. Friederike Spengler (additional)
  4. Hubert R. Dinse (additional)
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Dates
Type When
Created 7 years, 5 months ago (April 3, 2018, 1:33 p.m.)
Deposited 2 years, 4 months ago (April 13, 2023, 9:11 a.m.)
Indexed 1 month ago (Aug. 6, 2025, 8:46 a.m.)
Issued 25 years, 6 months ago (Feb. 15, 2000)
Published 25 years, 6 months ago (Feb. 15, 2000)
Published Online 25 years, 6 months ago (Feb. 15, 2000)
Published Print 25 years, 6 months ago (Feb. 15, 2000)
Funders 0

None

@article{Godde_2000, title={Tactile Coactivation-Induced Changes in Spatial Discrimination Performance}, volume={20}, ISSN={1529-2401}, url={http://dx.doi.org/10.1523/jneurosci.20-04-01597.2000}, DOI={10.1523/jneurosci.20-04-01597.2000}, number={4}, journal={The Journal of Neuroscience}, publisher={Society for Neuroscience}, author={Godde, Ben and Stauffenberg, Beate and Spengler, Friederike and Dinse, Hubert R.}, year={2000}, month=feb, pages={1597–1604} }