Somatosensory Integration and Masking of Complex Tactile Information: Peripheral and Cortical Contributions

Nerve paresthesia is a sensory impairment experienced in clinical conditions such as diabetes. Paresthesia may "mask" or "compete" with meaningful tactile information in the patient's sensory environment. The two objectives of the present study were: (1) to determine if radiating paresthesia produces a peripheral mask, a central mask, or a combination; (2) to determine if a response competition experimental design reveals changes in …