1）体性感覚野の生理学

Neurophysiology of the somatosensory cortex.

　体性感覚野といえば体部位再現地図を思い浮かべる人が多いだろう。これは大脳の機能局在論の論拠として知られるが，一方で体性感覚野の研究をミスリードしている点では功罪半ばするものがある。ここではこの問題を皮切りに，体性感覚野についての最近の研究の一端を紹介する。

The concept of the somatotopic body representation in the somatosensory cortex was reexamined. We found this concept not pertinent at the single neuronal level, investigated by microelectrodes in chronic monkeys: current studies as well as our own in single neuronal recording technique revealed that different kinds of signals from the periphery tend to converge to single neurons or single locus in fairly large area of the somatosensory cortex. Investigating this aspect further we could obtain cue of central mechanisms for complex somatosensory perception.

On the other hand we have shown that receptive fields of neurons in various shapes and spatial dimension may represent functional surfaces by which the hand make interaction with the object. By investigating behavioral deficits induced by local injection of muscimol we presented evidence that each functional surface in the somatosensory cortex is linked to particular performance of fingers in a given task.