Sustained attention modulates the immediate effect of de-afferentation on the cortical representation of the digits: source localization of somatosensory evoked potentials in humans

Long-term cortical reorganization of the somatotopic arrangement of the digits after alterations of the peripheral input is well established. Studies on the immediate effects of manipulating peripheral input have shown conflicting results indicating that additional factors might modulate cortical reorganization. We present a source localization study using somatosensory evoked potentials (SEP) following electric stimulation of digits one and five before and during anaesthesia of digits two, three and four in 10 normal volunteers. When attention was directed to a stimulus at the dorsal hand, the 3D-distance between digits one and five decreased during as compared to before anaesthesia. In contrast, this distance enlarged when subjects were not attending a particular stimulus. In this condition most subjects focused their attention on the clear sensation of the de-afferented hand region. These results indicate that attention modulates the effect of immediate cortical reorganization of the hand area during partial deafferentation. As an hypothesis: it may be speculated that the sensation of the de-afferentation results in increased synchronized activity of the de-afferented somatosensory cortex and, thus, to its enlarged representation. Conversely, if attention is directed to a different hand region, the representations of the neighboring digits may expand into the de-afferented cortex