TY  - JOUR
AU  - Liu, Peng
AU  - Chrysidou, Anastasia
AU  - Döhler, Juliane
AU  - Hebart, Martin N
AU  - Wolbers, Thomas
AU  - Kuehn, Esther
TI  - The organizational principles of de-differentiated topographic maps in somatosensory cortex.
JO  - eLife
VL  - 10
SN  - 2050-084X
CY  - Cambridge
PB  - eLife Sciences Publications
M1  - DZNE-2021-01215
SP  - e60090
PY  - 2021
AB  - Topographic maps are a fundamental feature of cortex architecture in the mammalian brain. One common theory is that the de-differentiation of topographic maps links to impairments in everyday behavior due to less precise functional map readouts. Here, we tested this theory by characterizing de-differentiated topographic maps in primary somatosensory cortex (SI) of younger and older adults by means of ultra-high resolution functional magnetic resonance imaging together with perceptual finger individuation and hand motor performance. Older adults' SI maps showed similar amplitude and size to younger adults' maps, but presented with less representational similarity between distant fingers. Larger population receptive field sizes in older adults' maps did not correlate with behavior, whereas reduced cortical distances between D2 and D3 related to worse finger individuation but better motor performance. Our data uncover the drawbacks of a simple de-differentiation model of topographic map function, and motivate the introduction of feature-based models of cortical reorganization.
KW  - Adult
KW  - Age Factors
KW  - Brain Mapping: instrumentation
KW  - Brain Mapping: methods
KW  - Female
KW  - Hand
KW  - Humans
KW  - Magnetic Resonance Imaging: methods
KW  - Male
KW  - Physical Stimulation
KW  - Somatosensory Cortex: physiology
KW  - Young Adult
KW  - 7 Tesla MRI (Other)
KW  - aging (Other)
KW  - human (Other)
KW  - neuroscience (Other)
KW  - pRF mapping (Other)
KW  - somatosensation (Other)
KW  - somatotopy (Other)
KW  - touch (Other)
LB  - PUB:(DE-HGF)16
C6  - pmid:34003108
C2  - pmc:PMC8186903
DO  - DOI:10.7554/eLife.60090
UR  - https://pub.dzne.de/record/157758
ER  -