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1 Magnetic Resonance and Image Analysis Research Centre, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, United Kingdom; Pain Research Institute, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, United Kingdom
2 Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Wales Bangor, Bangor, United Kingdom
3 Magnetic Resonance and Image Analysis Research Centre, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, United Kingdom
* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: Donna.Lloyd{at}manchester.ac.uk.
The posterior parietal cortex of both human and non-human primates is known to play a crucial role in the early integration of visual information with somatosensory, proprioceptive and vestibular signals. However, it is not known whether in humans this region is further capable of discriminating if a stimulus poses a threat to the body. In this fMRI study we tested the hypothesis that the posterior parietal cortex of humans is capable of modulating its response to the visual processing of noxious threat representation in the absence of tactile input. During fMRI, participants watched whilst we 'stimulated' a visible rubber hand, placed over their real hand with either a sharp (painful) or a blunt (non-painful) probe. We found that superior and inferior parietal regions (BA5/7 and BA40) increased their activity in response to observing a painful vs. non-painful stimulus. However, this effect was only evident when the rubber hand was in a spatially congruent (vs. incongruent) position with respect to the participant's own hand. In addition, areas involved in motivational-affective coding such as mid-cingulate (BA24) and anterior insula also showed such relevance-dependent modulation, whereas premotor areas known to receive multisensory information about limb position did not. We suggest these results reveal a human anatomical-functional homologue to monkey inferior parietal areas that respond to aversive stimuli by producing nocifensive muscle and limb movements.
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