# Texture coding in lateral parietal cortex - Resubmission 01

> **NIH NIH F31** · UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO · 2020 · $45,520

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
Texture is the sensory correlate of surface material and microgeometry. When we run our fingers across a
surface, we may perceive the surface as being rough, like sandpaper, or smooth, like glass; the surface may
also vary along other sensory continua, such as hardness (e.g., stone) vs. softness (e.g. moist sponge), or
stickiness (e.g., tape) vs. slipperiness (e.g., soap). Our exquisite sensitivity to surface texture spans six orders of
magnitude: We can discern elements measured from tens of nanometers to tens of millimeters. This ability
relies on two different neural codes in the peripheral nerve: Coarse surface elements are encoded in a spatial
pattern of activation in one population of tactile nerve fibers and fine surface elements are encoded in
millisecond precision temporal spiking patterns in two other populations of nerve fibers. These two streams of
information are reflected in the texture responses of neurons in anterior parietal cortex (APC), in which
neurons fall along a continuum: On one end are neurons that preferentially encode coarse textures and are
sensitive to spatial patterns of input, on the other end are neurons that preferentially encode fine textures and
are sensitive to temporal patterns of input. Furthermore, our perception of texture is independent of how we
touch a surface, but the neural representations in the nerve and in APC are dependent on the nature of
exploratory movements. How tolerant representations of texture are achieved remains unknown.
The goal of the present study, then, is to investigate the neural basis of tactile texture perception in lateral
parietal cortex (LPC), the primary downstream target of APC, using a large and diverse set of artificial and
natural textures across the range of behaviorally relevant exploratory conditions. We seek to (1) characterize the
representation of texture in LPC and (2) assess whether this representation is tolerant to changes in exploratory
conditions. Furthermore, neuronal responses in LPC have been shown to depend on the behavioral context
and the task. Our experimental paradigm will allow us to probe this task-dependence.
The proposed experiments will shed light on high level somatosensory representations, which to date have
received little experimental attention.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10012776
- **Project number:** 5F31NS110402-02
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO
- **Principal Investigator:** Katie Hannah Long
- **Activity code:** F31 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $45,520
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2019-09-01 → 2021-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10012776

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10012776, Texture coding in lateral parietal cortex - Resubmission 01 (5F31NS110402-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10012776. Licensed CC0.

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