TY - JOUR
T1 - A vibrotactile behavioral battery for investigating somatosensory processing in children and adults
AU - Puts, Nicolaas A.J.
AU - Edden, Richard A.E.
AU - Wodka, Ericka L.
AU - Mostofsky, Stewart H.
AU - Tommerdahl, Mark
N1 - Funding Information:
NAJP is funded by an Autism Speaks translational postdoctoral fellowship. ELW is supported by the Organization for Autism Research. This work was further supported by NIH ; P41 EB015909 and NIH/NINDS : 2 R01 NS048527-08 ; 2 R01 MH078160 and The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine Institute for Clinical and Translational Research National Institutes of Health/National Center for Research Resources Clinical and Translational Science Award program UL1 RR025005 . We would like to thank Taylor Koriakin, Carrie Nettles and Rebecca Buhlman for their help in acquiring the TDC data.
PY - 2013/8/5
Y1 - 2013/8/5
N2 - The cortical dynamics of somatosensory processing can be investigated using vibrotactile psychophysics. It has been suggested that different vibrotactile paradigms target different cortical mechanisms, and a number of recent studies have established links between somatosensory cortical function and measurable aspects of behavior. The relationship between cortical mechanisms and sensory function is particularly relevant with respect to developmental disorders in which altered inhibitory processing has been postulated, such as in ASD and ADHD. In this study, a vibrotactile battery consisting of nine tasks (incorporating reaction time, detection threshold, and amplitude- and frequency discrimination) was applied to a cohort of healthy adults and a cohort of typically developing children to assess the feasibility of such a vibrotactile battery in both cohorts, and the performance between children and adults was compared. These results showed that children and adults were both able to perform these tasks with a similar performance, although the children were slightly less sensitive in frequency discrimination. Performance within different task-groups clustered together in adults, providing further evidence that these tasks tap into different cortical mechanisms, which is also discussed. This clustering was not observed in children, which may be potentially indicative of development and a greater variability. In conclusion, in this study, we showed that both children and adults were able to perform an extensive vibrotactile battery, and we showed the feasibility of applying this battery to other (e.g., neurodevelopmental) cohorts to probe different cortical mechanisms.
AB - The cortical dynamics of somatosensory processing can be investigated using vibrotactile psychophysics. It has been suggested that different vibrotactile paradigms target different cortical mechanisms, and a number of recent studies have established links between somatosensory cortical function and measurable aspects of behavior. The relationship between cortical mechanisms and sensory function is particularly relevant with respect to developmental disorders in which altered inhibitory processing has been postulated, such as in ASD and ADHD. In this study, a vibrotactile battery consisting of nine tasks (incorporating reaction time, detection threshold, and amplitude- and frequency discrimination) was applied to a cohort of healthy adults and a cohort of typically developing children to assess the feasibility of such a vibrotactile battery in both cohorts, and the performance between children and adults was compared. These results showed that children and adults were both able to perform these tasks with a similar performance, although the children were slightly less sensitive in frequency discrimination. Performance within different task-groups clustered together in adults, providing further evidence that these tasks tap into different cortical mechanisms, which is also discussed. This clustering was not observed in children, which may be potentially indicative of development and a greater variability. In conclusion, in this study, we showed that both children and adults were able to perform an extensive vibrotactile battery, and we showed the feasibility of applying this battery to other (e.g., neurodevelopmental) cohorts to probe different cortical mechanisms.
KW - Behavioral
KW - GABA
KW - Pediatric
KW - Somatosensory
KW - Stimulator
KW - Vibrotactile
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84878681300&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84878681300&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.jneumeth.2013.04.012
DO - 10.1016/j.jneumeth.2013.04.012
M3 - Article
C2 - 23660524
AN - SCOPUS:84878681300
SN - 0165-0270
VL - 218
SP - 39
EP - 47
JO - Journal of Neuroscience Methods
JF - Journal of Neuroscience Methods
IS - 1
ER -