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Michael Rotte

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17 papers
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17

YNIMG Journal 2012 Journal Article

Embodied empathy for tactile events: Interindividual differences and vicarious somatosensory responses during touch observation

  • Michael Schaefer
  • Hans-Jochen Heinze
  • Michael Rotte

A growing body of evidence suggests an involvement of the somatosensory cortices for social perception. For example, it has been shown that observing touch on other bodies (in the absence of any real touch on the own body) affects somatosensory brain areas. Thus, understanding others' sensory experiences seems to rely on vicarious activation of somatosensory cortices. Recent studies also demonstrated that observation of painful and nonpainful touch engages the observer's somatosensory cortex differentially. The somatosensory activation during observation of painful stimulation has been related to trait differences in empathy, thereby drawing the attention to inter-individual differences in vicarious somatosensory activation. The current study aims to test the hypothesis if vicarious somatosensory activation during observation of nonpainful touch is also linked to inter-individual differences in empathy. We employed a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) paradigm to present video clips showing simple non-painful touch with a paintbrush to a hand relative to a control condition including the same visual and motion parts. Results revealed vicarious somatosensory activation when seeing the hand being touched. This activation was associated with trait differences in interpersonal reactivity. Thus, we found that the somatosensory response in primary somatosensory cortex (SI) was associated with the empathy subscale perspective taking. This link demonstrates that vicarious somatosensory responses for simple touch are influenced by the observer's personality traits, therefore suggesting a role for personality traits in a putative mirror neuron system.

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YNIMG Journal 2012 Journal Article

Touch and personality: Extraversion predicts somatosensory brain response

  • Michael Schaefer
  • Hans-Jochen Heinze
  • Michael Rotte

The Five-Factor-Model describes human personality in five core dimensions (extraversion, neuroticism, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness). These factors are supposed to have different neural substrates. For example, it has been suggested that behavioral differences between introverts and extraverts can be explained by the fact that introverts exhibit an inherent drive to compensate for overactive cortical activity in reticulo-thalamo-cortical pathways. The current study examined if responses in somatosensory cortices due to tactile stimulation are affected by personality traits. Based on previous studies and theoretical models we hypothesized a relationship of extraversion with somatosensory responses in primary somatosensory cortex (SI). In order to test this hypothesis we applied nonpainful tactile stimulation on the fingers of both hands of 23 healthy young participants (mean 25years, standard deviation±2. 8years). Personality traits were assessed according to the Five-Factor-Model (NEO-FFI). Neuromagnetic source imaging revealed that the cortical activity (dipole strengths) for sources in SI were closely associated with the personality trait extraversion. Thus, the less extraverted the participants were, the higher was the cortical activity in SI. This relationship was in particular valid for the right hemisphere. We conclude that personality seems to depend on primary cortex activity. Furthermore, our results provide further evidence for an inter-hemispheric asymmetry of the social brain.

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YNIMG Journal 2008 Journal Article

Distinguishing specific sexual and general emotional effects in fMRI—Subcortical and cortical arousal during erotic picture viewing

  • Martin Walter
  • Felix Bermpohl
  • Harold Mouras
  • Kolja Schiltz
  • Claus Tempelmann
  • Michael Rotte
  • Hans Jochen Heinze
  • Bernhard Bogerts

Sexual activity involves excitement with high arousal and pleasure as typical features of emotions. Brain activations specifically related to erotic feelings and those related to general emotional processing are therefore hard to disentangle. Using fMRI in 21 healthy subjects (11 males and 10 females), we investigated regions that show activations specifically related to the viewing of sexually intense pictures while controlling for general emotional arousal (GEA) or pleasure. Activations in the ventral striatum and hypothalamus were found to be modulated by the stimulus' specific sexual intensity (SSI) while activations in the anterior cingulate cortex were associated with an interaction between sexual intensity and emotional valence. In contrast, activation in other regions like the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, the mediodorsal thalamus and the amygdala was associated only with a general emotional component during sexual arousal. No differences were found in these effects when comparing females and males. Our findings demonstrate for the first time neural differentiation between emotional and sexual components in the neural network underlying sexual arousal.

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YNIMG Journal 2007 Journal Article

Morphing the body: Illusory feeling of an elongated arm affects somatosensory homunculus

  • Michael Schaefer
  • Herta Flor
  • Hans-Jochen Heinze
  • Michael Rotte

Recent studies suggest that in contrast to traditional views of the body map the topographic representation in primary somatosensory cortex (SI) reflects the perceived rather than the physical aspects of peripheral stimulation. Here, we created a simple illusion of feeling an elongated arm by using the dominance of the visual domain over the tactile sense: employing an artificial hand and arm, which were connected to the body, subjects were given the visual impression that they had an extended arm. Since it is known from animal studies that tactile illusions alter early sensory processing in SI, we expected a modulation of the topography in SI corresponding to this illusion. Behavioral results showed that during the illusion the participants felt that their arm was elongated. Neuromagnetic source imaging of the functional organization in SI revealed that the cortical distance between first (D1) and fifth digit (D5) decreased when subjects felt the arm elongated. Since this modulation was significantly positively correlated with the illusionary feeling of an extended arm, the results suggest an involvement of SI during perceived changes in the size of body parts. We discuss the results as possible top-down modulations of SI by higher order somatosensory areas.

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YNIMG Journal 2006 Journal Article

Dynamic modulation of the primary somatosensory cortex during seeing and feeling a touched hand

  • Michael Schaefer
  • Herta Flor
  • Hans-Jochen Heinze
  • Michael Rotte

Previous work has demonstrated cross-modal links between vision and somatosensation at an early stage of sensory processing. Furthermore, recent behavioral studies have shown that viewing the stimulated body part can enhance tactile discrimination ability at the stimulated site. This study aims to investigate the role of the primary somatosensory cortex (SI) during visuotactile integration processes. Subjects looked at a hand in a video being touched on the first digit (D1) in synchrony with felt touches on their real hidden hand as compared with watching a video with asynchronous touches. During synchronous stimulation, subjects reported to feel the tactile sensation on the video hand, thus indicating that in this condition the subjects regarded the video hand as their own touched hand. This feeling disappeared in the asynchronous condition. Using neuromagnetic source imaging, we assessed the topography of the functional organization of SI related to tactile stimulation of D1. The cortical representation of D1 moved to a more inferior location during synchronous in comparison to asynchronous stimulation and rest. This modulation of the map in SI was significantly positively correlated with the feeling that the seen touch in the video represented the touch on the real hand. Thus, only if the seen touch is attributed to the own body, SI seems to be modulated.

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YNIMG Journal 2006 Journal Article

Fooling your feelings: Artificially induced referred sensations are linked to a modulation of the primary somatosensory cortex

  • Michael Schaefer
  • Nina Noennig
  • Hans-Jochen Heinze
  • Michael Rotte

Recent studies demonstrated tactile illusions in healthy subjects by manipulating visual and tactile information. For example, a rubber hand, lying on a table in front of the subject and not connected with the body, can be felt by the subject as belonging to his or her own body by a simple visuotactile manipulation. Aim of the present study was to create an illusion in which the subject feels touch on a body site which is different from the actual touch, hence showing a referral of touch similar to those reported in phantom limb patients. Since it is known from animal studies that tactile illusions can alter early sensory processing, we were interested in the role of the primary somatosensory cortex (SI) during this kind of illusion. Thus, we manipulated the visual and tactile information in eight healthy subjects. The participants were stimulated on their fifth digit (D5) while watching a video, which showed a life-sized hand where the first digit (D1) was stimulated, hence inducing a conflict in feeling and seeing. The visual and tactile stimulation was in-phase in one condition and out-of-phase in a control condition. The video was presented in the peripersonal space of the subject at the distance where the real hand would be expected. Subjects reported a referred sensation of feeling the stimulation on D1 instead of D5 when the stimulation was in-phase with the video. Neuromagnetic source imaging of the topography of the functional organization of SI related to tactile stimulation of D1 and D5 showed that the source extent of the cortical representation of D5 increased during the illusion. The results suggest that a simple manipulation of visual and tactile information can induce referred sensations in healthy subjects in a very fast manner. Since the amount of the referred sensation was significantly correlated with the modulation in SI, we argue that SI is involved in this kind of artificially induced referred sensation.

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YNIMG Journal 2006 Journal Article

Neural correlates of culturally familiar brands of car manufacturers

  • Michael Schaefer
  • Harald Berens
  • Hans-Jochen Heinze
  • Michael Rotte

Brands have a high impact on people's economic decisions. People may prefer products of brands even among almost identical products. Brands can be defined as cultural-based symbols, which promise certain advantages of a product. Recent studies suggest that the prefrontal cortex may be crucial for the processing of brand knowledge. The aim of this study was to examine the neural correlates of culturally based brands. We confronted subjects with logos of car manufactures during an fMRI session and instructed them to imagine and use a car of these companies. As a control condition, we used graphically comparable logos of car manufacturers that were unfamiliar to the culture of the subjects participating in this study. If they did not know the logo of the brand, they were told to imagine and use a generic car. Results showed activation of a single region in the medial prefrontal cortex related to the logos of the culturally familiar brands. We discuss the results as self-relevant processing induced by the imagined use of cars of familiar brands and suggest that the prefrontal cortex plays a crucial role for processing culturally based brands.

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YNIMG Journal 2006 Journal Article

Shared networks for auditory and motor processing in professional pianists: Evidence from fMRI conjunction

  • Marc Bangert
  • Thomas Peschel
  • Gottfried Schlaug
  • Michael Rotte
  • Dieter Drescher
  • Hermann Hinrichs
  • Hans-Jochen Heinze
  • Eckart Altenmüller

To investigate cortical auditory and motor coupling in professional musicians, we compared the functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) activity of seven pianists to seven non-musicians utilizing a passive task paradigm established in a previous learning study. The tasks involved either passively listening to short piano melodies or pressing keys on a mute MRI-compliant piano keyboard. Both groups were matched with respect to age and gender, and did not exhibit any overt performance differences in the keypressing task. The professional pianists showed increased activity compared to the non-musicians in a distributed cortical network during both the acoustic and the mute motion-related task. A conjunction analysis revealed a distinct musicianship-specific network being co-activated during either task type, indicating areas involved in auditory-sensorimotor integration. This network is comprised of dorsolateral and inferior frontal cortex (including Broca's area), the superior temporal gyrus (Wernicke's area), the supramarginal gyrus, and supplementary motor and premotor areas.

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YNIMG Journal 2005 Journal Article

Dynamic shifts in the organization of primary somatosensory cortex induced by bimanual spatial coupling of motor activity

  • Michael Schaefer
  • Herta Flor
  • Hans-Jochen Heinze
  • Michael Rotte

Previous work has shown that training and learning can induce powerful changes in the homuncular organization of the primary somatosensory cortex (SI). Moreover, a number of studies suggest the existence of short-term adaptation of representational maps in SI. Recently, motor activity has been shown to induce rapid modulation of somatosensory cortical maps. It is hypothesized that there is a task-related influence of motor and premotor areas upon the organization of somatosensory cortex. In order to test this hypothesis, we studied the functional organization of somatosensory cortex by examining coupling effects in a bimanual movement task. Bimanual coupling is known to be related to an activation of the premotor cortex and the supplementary motor area. The functional organization of the somatosensory cortex for known bimanual coupling effects was compared to the organization of the somatosensory cortex during the same movements but with only a small effort in coupling. Topography of the functional organization of the somatosensory cortex was assessed using neuromagnetic source imaging based on tactile stimulation of the first (D1) and fifth digit (D5). We could show that the cortical representations of D1 and D5 moved further apart during the bimanual coupling task in comparison to the same task without coupling and rest. Our data suggest that somatosensory cortical maps undergo fast and dynamic modulation as a result of a task-related influence of motor or premotor areas.

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YNIMG Journal 2005 Journal Article

Task-relevant modulation of primary somatosensory cortex suggests a prefrontal–cortical sensory gating system

  • Michael Schaefer
  • Hans-Jochen Heinze
  • Michael Rotte

Increasing evidence suggests that somatosensory information is modulated cortically for task-specific sensory inflow: Several studies report short-term adaptation of representational maps in primary somatosensory cortex (SI) due to attention or induced by task-related motor activity such as handwriting. Recently, it has been hypothesized that the frontal or prefrontal cortex may modulate SI. In order to test this hypothesis, we studied the functional organization of SI while subjects performed the Tower of Hanoi task. This task is known to be related to activation of frontal or prefrontal areas. The functional organization of SI while performing the Tower of Hanoi task was compared to the organization of SI during performing the same movements but without the Tower of Hanoi task and with rest. Topography of SI was assessed using neuromagnetic source imaging based on tactile stimulation of the first (D1) and fifth digits (D5). Performing the Tower of Hanoi task was accompanied by plastic changes in SI as indicated by significant shifts in the cortical representations of D1 and D5: They moved further apart during the Tower of Hanoi task compared to the control task containing the same movements but without the cognitive characteristic. Thus, we conclude that SI maps undergo dynamic modulation depending on motor tasks with different cognitive demands. The results suggest that this short-term plasticity may be regulated by a prefrontal–cortical sensory gating system.

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YNIMG Journal 1998 Journal Article

Functional–Anatomic Study of Episodic Retrieval

  • Randy L. Buckner
  • Wilma Koutstaal
  • Daniel L. Schacter
  • Anders M. Dale
  • Michael Rotte
  • Bruce R. Rosen

In a companion paper (R. L. Buckneret al. ,1998, NeuroImage 7, 151–162) we used fMRI to identify brain areas activated by episodic memory retrieval. Prefrontal areas were shown to differentiate component processes related to retrieval success and retrieval effort in block-designed paradigms. Importantly, a right anterior prefrontal area was most active during task blocks involving greatest retrieval success, consistent with an earlier PET study by M. D. Rugget al. (1996, Brain 119, 2073–2083). However, manipulation of these variables within the context of blocked trials confounds differences related to varying levels of retrieval success with potential shifts in subjects' strategies due to changes in the probability of target events across blocks. To test more rigorously the hypothesis that certain areas are directly related to retrieval success, we adopted recently developed procedures for event-related fMRI. Fourteen subjects studied words under deep encoding and were then tested in a mixed trial paradigm where old and new words were randomly presented. This recognition testing procedure activated similar areas to the blocked trial paradigm, with all areas showing similar levels of activation across old and new items. Of critical importance, significant activation was detected in right anterior prefrontal cortex for new items when subjects correctly indicated they were new (correct rejections). These findings go against the retrieval success hypothesis as formally proposed and provide an important constraint for interpretation of this region's role in episodic retrieval. Furthermore, anterior prefrontal activation was found to occur late, relative to other brain areas, suggesting that it may be involved in retrieval verification or monitoring processes or perhaps even in anticipation of subsequent trial events (although an alternative possibility, that the late onset is mediated by a late vascular response, cannot be ruled out). These findings and their relation to the results obtained in the companion blocked-trial paradigm are discussed.

Details DOI
v2026.09.13