Abstract
A near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) study was conducted during which participants carried out tactile recognition of unfamiliar objects. A previous functional brain-imaging study reported activation of the right parietal lobe under tactile recognition of familiar objects using only the right hand (Reed et al., 2005). In this study, we intended to extend the previous finding to tactile recognition of unfamiliar objects with the left hand, as well as with the right hand. Hemodynamic activation of brains of eight healthy young participants was compared between tasks involving recognition of objects made by LEGO bricks and palpation of them, allowing to eliminate the effect of similar motor and sensory stimulation. Compared to nonsense object palpation, the most prominent activation evoked by tactile object recognition was in bilateral parietal lobe, irrespective of the hand used for the task. This suggested contribution of bilateral parietal lobule on tactile recognition for unfamiliar objects.
