Change-Driven M100 Component in the Bilateral Secondary Somatosensory Cortex: A Magnetoencephalographic Study

Our previous demonstration that the M100 somatosensory evoked magnetic field (SEF) has a similar temporal profile, dipole orientation and source location whether induced by activation (ON-M100) or deactivation (OFF-M100) of electrical stimulation suggests a common cortical system to detect sensory change. While we have not recorded such change-driven components earlier than M100 using electrical stimulation, clear M50 responses were reported using both ON and OFF mechanical stimulation (Onishi et al. in Clin Neurophysiol 121:588–593, 2010). To examine the significance of M50 and M100 in reflecting the detection of somatosensory changes, we recorded these waveforms in 12 healthy subjects (9 males and 3 females) by magnetoencephalography in response to mechanical stimulation from a piezoelectric actuator. Onset and offset (ON and OFF) stimuli were randomly presented with three preceding steady state (PSS) durations (0.5, 1.5 and 3 s) in one consecutive session. Results revealed that (i) onset and offset somatosensory events elicited clear M50 and M100 components; (ii) M50 and M100 components had distinct origins, with M50 localised to the contralateral primary somatosensory cortex (cS1) and M100 to the bilateral secondary somatosensory cortex (iS2, cS2); and (iii) the amplitude of M50 in cS1 was independent of the PSS durations, whereas that of M100 in S2 was dependent on the PSS durations for both ON and OFF events. These findings suggest that the M50 amplitude in cS1 reflects the number of activated mechanoreceptors during Onset and Offset, whereas the M100 amplitude in S2 reflects change detection based on sensory memory for Onset and Offset stimuli at least in part. We demonstrated that the M50 in cS1 and M100 in S2 plays different roles in the change detection system in somatosensory modality.