{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"institution":[{"name":"bioRxiv"}],"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,4]],"date-time":"2026-06-04T20:20:17Z","timestamp":1780604417935,"version":"3.54.1"},"posted":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,12]]},"group-title":"Neuroscience","reference-count":62,"publisher":"openRxiv","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,12]],"date-time":"2026-05-12T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1778544000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc-nd\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/100000002","name":"National Institutes of Health","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","award":["UH3NS107714"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["UH3NS107714"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/100000002","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"crossref"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/100000002","name":"National Institutes of Health","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","award":["R35NS122333"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["R35NS122333"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/100000002","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"crossref"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":[],"accepted":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,12]]},"abstract":"<jats:title>Abstract<\/jats:title>\n                <jats:p>The sense of touch is fundamental for dexterous manipulation, object interaction, and body awareness. It is primarily processed in the somatosensory cortex (SC), yet our understanding of how tactile information is encoded at the level of neural populations and single neurons in humans remains limited. It is unclear how natural tactile signals are represented in SC and how they may be influenced by visual inputs, as well as how closely sensory and motor cortices interact during passive touch. Here, we investigated the neural basis of touch in the human SC using chronically implanted microelectrode arrays in three participants. By delivering controlled mechanical stimuli, we characterized neural responses to natural touch and mapped detailed somatotopic receptive fields (the patch of skin that elicits neural responses when stimulated) in humans, including multi-digit representations. Surprisingly, we also found strong, clearly somatotopic activation in the motor cortex (MC) during passive touch, even in the absence of movement, highlighting a tight and functionally relevant sensorimotor coupling. We further examined how vision shapes tactile processing by comparing neural activity during actual touch with and without vision, and during observation of touch on another person\u2019s hand. While touch to the participants\u2019 hands elicited robust, event-locked, and somatotopically organized responses in the SC, observation of tactile actions alone did not produce significant activation, suggesting limited vicarious encoding at this level. These findings provide a detailed characterization of human touch processing at the level of neuronal populations and give insights for the design of microstimulation strategies of the SC for the restoration of touch.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.64898\/2026.05.08.721831","type":"posted-content","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,13]],"date-time":"2026-05-13T06:15:16Z","timestamp":1778652916000},"source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":1,"title":["Spatiotemporal encoding of touch signals in the human somatosensory and motor cortices"],"prefix":"10.64898","author":[{"given":"Michela","family":"Cattabriga","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Electrical Engineering, Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-0997-1810","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Ali H.","family":"Alamri","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Organismal Biology and Anatomy, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-8593-6910","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Taylor G.","family":"Hobbs","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Rehab Neural Engineering Labs, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA"},{"name":"Department of Bioengineering, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-4192-0415","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Alexandriya M. X.","family":"Emonds","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Organismal Biology and Anatomy, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-0513-9194","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Anton R.","family":"Sobinov","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Organismal Biology and Anatomy, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-6202-5818","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Robert A.","family":"Gaunt","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Rehab Neural Engineering Labs, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA"},{"name":"Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA"},{"name":"Department of Bioengineering, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-6806-3302","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Charles M.","family":"Greenspon","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Organismal Biology and Anatomy, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL"},{"name":"Department of Neurological Surgery, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-2637-8007","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Giacomo","family":"Valle","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Electrical Engineering, Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden"},{"name":"Department of Organismal Biology and Anatomy, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"54368","reference":[{"key":"2026051417152334000_2026.05.08.721831v1.1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1038\/s41583-021-00528-7"},{"key":"2026051417152334000_2026.05.08.721831v1.2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1038\/nrn2621"},{"key":"2026051417152334000_2026.05.08.721831v1.3","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1152\/jn.00434.2001"},{"key":"2026051417152334000_2026.05.08.721831v1.4","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1575","DOI":"10.1002\/j.2040-4603.2018.tb00045.x","article-title":"Neural Basis of Touch and Proprioception in Primate Cortex","volume":"8","year":"2018","journal-title":"Compr Physiol"},{"key":"2026051417152334000_2026.05.08.721831v1.5","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"409","DOI":"10.1002\/cne.900970302","article-title":"The representation of tactile sensibility in the thalamus of the monkey","volume":"97","year":"1952","journal-title":"J of Comparative Neurology"},{"key":"2026051417152334000_2026.05.08.721831v1.6","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1073\/pnas.2115772118"},{"key":"2026051417152334000_2026.05.08.721831v1.7","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1126\/science.107591"},{"key":"2026051417152334000_2026.05.08.721831v1.8","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1007\/bf00237869"},{"key":"2026051417152334000_2026.05.08.721831v1.9","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1002\/cne.23499"},{"key":"2026051417152334000_2026.05.08.721831v1.10","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Mountcastle, V. 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