AbstractsPsychology

Although there is an abundance of clinical neurological studies dealing with the role of the cerebral cortex in somesthesis, the lack of quantitative behavioral measures, combined with the diffuse and often histologically unverified nature of the lesions in the patients studied, seriously limits the value of the findings. A further difficulty arises from the varied modes of sensation subsumed under the general heading of somesthesis. A considerable advance was made with the advent of newer electrophysiological techniques (including cortical stimulation in conscious patients, and evoked potential recording in lower animals), which permitted accurate mapping of somatosensory representation in the cerebral cortex.