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Cerebral Cortex Advance Access published online on March 27, 2008
Cerebral Cortex, doi:10.1093/cercor/bhn029
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© The Author 2008. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Spatial Attention Related SEP Amplitude Modulations Covary with BOLD Signal in S1—A Simultaneous EEG—fMRI Study

Ruth Schubert1,2, Petra Ritter2, Torsten Wüstenberg3, Claudia Preuschhof2,4, Gabriel Curio1, Werner Sommer5 and Arno Villringer2,6

1 Neurophysics Group, Charité-University Medicine, Campus Benjamin Franklin, 12200 Berlin, Germany, 2 Berlin NeuroImaging Center, Charité-University Medicine, Campus Mitte, 10117 Berlin, Germany, 3 Department of Medical Psychology, Georg-August-University, 37073 Göttingen, Germany, 4 Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Department of Lifespan Psychology, 14195 Berlin, Germany, 5 Humboldt-University of Berlin, Institute for Psychology, 10178 Berlin, Germany, 6 Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, 04103 Leipzig, Germany

Address correspondence to Ruth Schubert, PhD, Klinik für Neurologie und klinische Neurophysiology, Hindenburgdamm 30, 12200 Berlin, Germany. Fax: +49-30-8445-4264. Email: ruth.schubert{at}charite.de.

Recent studies investigating the influence of spatial-selective attention on primary somatosensory processing have produced inconsistent results. The aim of this study was to explore the influence of tactile spatial-selective attention on spatiotemporal aspects of evoked neuronal activity in the primary somatosensory cortex (S1). We employed simultaneous electroencephalography (EEG)–functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in 14 right-handed subjects during bilateral index finger Braille stimulation to investigate the relationship between attentional effects on somatosensory evoked potential (SEP) components and the blood oxygenation level–dependent (BOLD) signal. The 1st reliable EEG response following left tactile stimulation (P50) was significantly enhanced by spatial-selective attention, which has not been reported before. FMRI analysis revealed increased activity in contralateral S1. Remarkably, the effect of attention on the P50 component as well as long-latency SEP components starting at 190 ms for left stimuli correlated with attentional effects on the BOLD signal in contralateral S1. The implications are 2-fold: First, the correlation between early and long-latency SEP components and the BOLD effect suggest that spatial-selective attention enhances processing in S1 at 2 time points: During an early passage of the signal and during a later passage, probably via re-entrant feedback from higher cortical areas. Second, attentional modulations of the fast electrophysiological signals and the slow hemodynamic response are linearly related in S1.

Key Words: braille • correlation • P50 • primary somatosensory cortex • spatial-selective attention • tactile


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