Parietal cortex: From sight to action

Current Opinion in Neurobiology

Volumn 7, Issue 4, 1997, Pages 562-567

  Rizzolatti, Giacomo ^a   Fogassi, Leonardo ^a   Gallese, Vittorio ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF PARMA   (Italy)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

BRAIN FUNCTION; DEPTH PERCEPTION; EYE MOVEMENT; FRONTAL LOBE; HAND MOVEMENT; HEAD MOVEMENT; MONKEY; MOTOR COORDINATION; NONHUMAN; PARIETAL LOBE; PRIORITY JOURNAL; REVIEW;

EID: 0031408426     PISSN: 09594388     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1016/S0959-4388(97)80037-2     Document Type: Article

References (51)

1. Holmes G. Disturbances of visual space perception. Br Med J. 2:1919;230-233.
2. Critchley M. The Parietal Lobes. 1953;Hafner Press, New York.
3. Milner AD, Goodale MA. The Visual Brain in Action. 1995;Oxford University Press, Oxford.
4. Rizzolatti G, Riggio L, Sheliga BM. Space and selective attention. Umiltà C, Moscovitch M. Attention and Performance. 1994;231-265 MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
5. Gross CG, Graziano MSA. Multiple representations of space in the brain. Neuroscientist. 1:1995;43-50.
6. Colby CL, Duhamel J-R. Spatial representations for action in parietal cortex. of special interest Cogn Brain Res. 5:1996;105-115 An interesting review on space representation in the parietal cortex. The authors conclude that the parietal cortex contains multiple representations of visual space. These multiple representations, which are located in different parietal areas, are tailored to guide specific types of action, such as eye, head, and arm movements.
7. Taira M, Mine S, Georgopoulos AP, Murata A, Sakata H. Parietal cortex neurons of the monkey related to the visual guidance of hand movement. Exp Brain Res. 83:1990;29-36.
8. Sakata H, Taira M. Parietal control of hand action. Curr Opin Neurobiol. 4:1994;847-856.
9. Sakata H, Taira M, Murata A, Mine S. Neural mechanisms of visual guidance of hand action in the parietal cortex of the monkey. Cereb Cortex. 5:1995;429-438.
10. Shikata E, Tanaka Y, Nakamura H, Taira M, Sakata H. Selectivity of the parietal visual neurones in 3D orientation of surface of stereoscopic stimuli. of outstanding interest Neuroreport. 7:1996;2389-2394 The authors report that in the posterior part of the lateral bank of the IPS there is a population of neurons that respond selectively to the surface orientation of 3D objects. The importance of this study consists in the demonstration that object shape is analyzed within the visual dorsal stream.
11. Murata A, Fadiga L, Fogassi L, Gallese V, Rads V, Rizzolatti G. Object representation in the ventral premotor cortex (area F5) of the monkey. J Neurophysiol. 1997;. in press.
12. Rizzolatti G, Camarda R, Fogassi M, Gentilucci M, Luppino G, Matelli M. Functional organization of inferior area 6 in the macaque monkey: II. Area F5 and the control of distal movements. Exp Brain Res. 71:1988;491-507.
13. Jeannerod M, Arbib MA, Rizzolatti G, Sakata H. Grasping objects: the cortical mechanisms of visuomotor transformation. Trends Neurosci. 18:1995;314-320.
14. Gallese V, Fadiga L, Fogassi L, Luppino G, Murata A. A parieto-frontal circuit for hand grasping movements in the monkey: evidence from reversible inactivation experiments. of special interest Thier P, Karnath H-O. Parietal Lobe Contributions to Orientation in 3D Space. 1997;255-270 Springer-Verlag, Heidelberg, Summarizes the functional properties of 'grasping' neurons in areas AIP and F5 and describes the effect of their reversible inactivation on grasping behavior. The deficits following inactivation of areas AIP and F5 are strikingly similar: severe disruption of hand preshaping and object grip in the absence of paralysis, but no deficit in reaching. The nature of the deficits corroborates the notion of a parieto-frontal circuit specific for the visual guidance of grasping movements. The relative roles of areas AIP and F5 in this circuit are discussed.
15. Gallese V, Murata A, Kaseda M, Niki N, Sakata H. Deficit of hand preshaping after muscimol injection in monkey parietal cortex. Neuroreport. 5:1994;1525-1529.
16. Fagg AH. A computational model of the cortical mechanisms involved in primate grasping. PhD Thesis. 1996;University of Southern California, Los Angeles.
17. Murata A, Gallese A, Kaseda M, Sakata H. Parietal neurons related to memory-guided hand manipulation. of outstanding interest J Neurophysiol. 75:1996;2180-2186 Monkeys were trained to perform a task of delayed hand manipulation, in which objects had to be reached for and grasped in darkness after a brief visual presentation, and object fixation tasks in light and in darkness. Neurons were recorded from area AIP. The most interesting result was that a relatively high percentage of AIP neurons discharged not only during the delay period preceding grasping, but also during fixation in the dark after a brief visual presentation of the object. The results of this study provide strong evidence that object information is processed and retained in short-term memory within the visual dorsal stream.
18. Colby CL, Duhamel J-R, Goldberg ME. Ventral intraparietal area of the macaque: anatomic location and visual response properties. J Neurophysiol. 69:1993;902-914.
19. Maunsell JHR, Van Essen DC. The connections of the middle temporal visual area (MT) and their relationship to a cortical hierarchy in the macaque monkey. J Neurosci. 3:1983;2563-2586.
20. Ungerleider LG, Desimone R. Cortical projections of visual area MT in the macaque. J Comp Neurol. 248:1986;190-222.
21. Bremmer F, Duhamel J-R, Ben Hamed S, Graf W. The representation of movement in near extra-personal space in the macaque ventral intraparietal area (VIP). of special interest Thier P, Karnath H-O. Parietal Lobe Contributions to Orientation in 3D Space. 1997;255-270 Springer-Verlag, Heidelberg, The authors describe a series of experiments showing that the majority of VIP neurons respond to optic flow pattern. Of these, one-third respond also to tactile stimuli on the face and about a half respond to vestibular stimulation. It is proposed that VIP neurons responding to optic flow pattern code self-motion in the peripersonal space.
22. Andersen RA, Snyder LH, Chiang-Shan L, Stricanne B. Coordinate transformations in the representation of spatial information. Curr Opin Neurobiol. 3:1993;171-176.
23. Bruce CJ, Goldberg ME. Primate frontal eye field. I. Single neurons discharging before saccades. J Neurophysiol. 53:1985;603-635.
24. Gentilucci M, Scandolara C, Pigarev IN, Rizzolatti G. Visual responses in the postarcuate cortex (area 6) of the monkey that are independent of eye position. Exp Brain Res. 50:1983;464-468.
25. Fogassi L, Gallese V, di Pellegrino G, Fadiga L, Gentilucci M, Luppino G, Matelli M, Pedotti A, Rizzolatti G. Space coding by premotor cortex. Exp Brain Res. 89:1992;686-690.
26. Fogassi L, Gallese V, Fadiga L, Luppino G, Matelli M, Rizzolatti G. Coding of peripersonal space in inferior premotor cortex (area F4). of outstanding interest J Neurophysiol. 76:1996;141-157 Gives a clear demonstration that bimodal neurons of F4 encode space in nonretinal coordinates. Monkeys were trained to fixate a spot of light at different gaze angles. A 3D stimulus was moved towards the monkey. In most of the F4 neurons tested, the visual RFs were independent of eye position, remaining anchored to the tactile RF. The authors suggest that the somatocentered 'visual' responses of F4 neurons represent either a true visual activity tuned for motor purposes or a potential movement evoked by the stimulus. In both cases, however, space perception in the premotor cortex appears to be related to body parts and to be explicitly encoded at the single neuron level.
27. Graziano MSA, Yap GS, Gross CG. Coding of visual space by premotor neurons. Science. 266:1994;1054-1057.
28. Rizzolatti G, Scandolara C, Matelli M, Gentilucci M. Afferent properties of periarcuate neurons in macaque monkey. I. Somato-sensory responses. Behav Brain Res. 2:1981;125-146.
29. Rizzolatti G, Scandolara C, Matelli M, Gentilucci M. Afferent properties of periarcuate neurons in macaque monkey. II. Visual responses. Behav Brain Res. 2:1981;147-163.
30. Gentilucci M, Fogassi L, Luppino G, Matelli M, Camarda R, Rizzolatti G. Functional organization of inferior area 6 in the macaque monkey: I. Somatotopy and the control of proximal movements. Exp Brain Res. 71:1988;475-490.
31. Graziano MSA, Gross CG. The representation of extrapersonal space: a possible role for bimodal visual-tactile neurons. Gazzaniga MS. The Cognitive Neurosciences. 1994;1021-1034 MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
32. Fogassi L, Gallese V, Fadiga L, Rizzolatti G. Space coding in inferior premotor cortex (area F4): facts and speculations. NATO ASI Series Lacquaniti F, Viviani P. Neural Basis of Motor Behaviour. 1996;99-120 Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht.
33. Iriki A, Tanaka M, Iwamura Y. Coding of modified body schema during tool use by macaque postcentral neurones. of outstanding interest Neuroreport. 7:1996;2325-2330 A very elegant experiment describing the properties of the visual RFs of bimodal neurons located in the medial bank of the IPS. Monkeys were trained to retrieve distant objects by using a rake. Recordings were taken from the bimodal neurons before and after the training. The most interesting finding was that 'tool use' induced an expansion of the visual RFs that encompassed the space occupied by the tool. These data represent strong evidence that motor activity shapes spatial RFs.
34. Thier P, Andersen RA. Multiple parietal 'eye fields': insights from electrical microstimulation. Thier P, Karnath H-O. Parietal Lobe Contributions to Orientation in 3D Space. 1997;95-108 Springer-Verlag, Heidelberg.
35. Snyder LH, Batista AP, Andersen RA. Coding of intention in the posterior parietal cortex. of outstanding interest Nature. 386:1997;167-169 An extremely important methodological contribution. Monkeys were trained to fixate on a central spot of light and, at the presentation of a peripheral visual stimulus, they had to either re-fixate on the peripheral stimulus or reach towards it without moving their eyes. In addition, a condition was introduced in which the monkey had to fixate on a peripheral point and reach for another peripheral point located in the opposite visual hemifield (dissociation task). The results from the monkeys' performance on the dissociation task demonstrated that neurons that control both eye and arm movements are, in most cases, either 'eye-movement' or 'arm-movement' neurons.
36. Sakata H, Takaoka Y, Kawarasaki A, Shibutani H. Somatosensory properties of neurons in the superior parietal cortex (area 5) of the rhesus monkey. Brain Res. 64:1973;85-102.
37. Hyvärinen J, Poranen A. Function of the parietal associative area 7 as revealed from cellular discharges in alert monkeys. Brain. 97:1974;673-692.
38. Mountcastle VB, Lynch JCGA, Georgopoulos AP, Sakata H, Acuna C. Posterior parietal association cortex of the monkey: command functions for operations within extrapersonal space. J Neurophysiol. 38:1975;871-908.
39. Lacquaniti F, Guigon E, Bianchi L, Ferraina S, Caminiti R. Representing spatial information for limb movement: role of area 5 in the monkey. Cereb Cortex. 5:1995;391-409.
40. Johnson PB, Ferraina S, Bianchi L, Caminiti R. Cortical networks for visual reaching: physiological and anatomical organization of frontal and parietal lobe arm regions. of special interest Cereb Cortex. 6:1996;102-119 Signal-, set- and movement-related neurons are distributed nonuniformly within the dorsal premotor and superior parietal cortex. Within the premotor cortex, neurons more closely related to movement generation are located caudally, whereas in the parietal lobe, they are more frequent on the convexity (area PE) than in the medial bank of the IPS. The opposite gradient is observed for signal-related cells.
41. Colby CL, Gattass R, Olson CR, Gross CG. Topographical organization of cortical afferents to extrastriate visual area PO in the macaque: a dual tracer study. J Comp Neurol. 269:1988;392-413.
42. Galletti C, Fattori P, Battaglini PP, Shipp S, Zeki S. Functional demarcation of a border between areas V6 and V6A in the superior parietal gyrus of the macaque monkey. of outstanding interest Eur J Neurosci. 8:1996;30-52 An excellent account of the functional properties and intrinsic connections of the cortical region occupying the anterior bank of the parieto-occipital sulcus. Two distinct areas are recognized: area V6/PO, which occupies the ventralmost part of the bank and contains only visual cells, and area V6A, which is located more dorsally and contains visually unresponsive cells and visual neurons with craniotopic RFs. The authors propose that V6A might supply the premotor cortex with visuospatial information for the control of arm movements.
43. Galletti C, Battaglini PP, Fattori P. Eye position influence on the parieto-occipital area PO (V6) of the macaque monkey. Eur J Neurosci. 7:1995;2486-2501.
44. Galletti C, Battaglini PP, Fattori P. Parietal neurons encoding spatial locations in craniotopic coordinates. Exp Brain Res. 96:1993;221-229.
45. Galletti C, Fattori P, Kutz DF, Battaglini PP. Arm movement-related neurons in the visual area V6A of the macaque superior parietal lobule. of special interest Eur J Neurosci. 9:1997;410-413 A brief report showing that arm-movement-related neurons are present in area V6A. Somatosensory responses could be evoked from most of these neurons. The authors propose that area V6A is involved in the visual guidance of reaching movements.
46. Tann J, Boussaoud D, Boyer-Zeller N, Rouiller EM. Direct visual pathways for reaching movements in the macaque monkey. Neuroreport. 7:1995;267-272.
47. Caminiti R, Ferraina S, Johnson PB. The sources of visual information to the primate frontal lobe: a novel role for the superior parietal lobule. Cereb Cortex. 6:1996;319-328.
48. Colby CL, Duhamel J-R. Heterogeneity of extrastriate visual areas and multiple parietal areas in the macaque monkeys. Neuropsychologia. 29:1991;517-537.
49. Piaget J. Lo Sviluppo Mentale del Bambino. The Mental Development of the Child :1967;Einaudi, Torino.
50. E De Renzi. Disorders of Space Exploration and Cognition. 1982;Wiley, New York.
51. Matelli M, Luppino G, Rizzolatti G. Patterns of cytochrome oxidase activity in the frontal agranular cortex of the macaque monkey. Behav Brain Res. 18:1985;125-137.