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Journal of Neuroscience, Vol 1, 3-26, Copyright © 1981 by Society for Neuroscience
The functional properties of the light-sensitive neurons of the posterior parietal cortex studied in waking monkeys: foveal sparing and opponent vector organization
BC Motter and VB Mountcastle
We describe in this paper the results of a new study of the inferior
parietal lobule in 10 waking monkeys combining the methods of behavioral
control, visual stimulation, and single neuron analysis. In this study,
1682 neurons were identified; 804 were studied in detail. Neurons
insensitive to visual stimuli comprise the fixation, oculomotor, and
projection-manipulation classes thought to be involved in initiatives
toward action. The largest group of the light-sensitive (LS) neurons were
activated from large and frequently bilateral response areas that excluded
the foveal region; we term this foveal sparing. The remaining cells
subtended areas including the fovea, when tested with large stimuli (6
degrees X 6 degrees), but only 8 of 216 cells studied in detail responded
to the small fixation target light. We propose that a dynamic central
neural process associated with the acts of fixation and visual attention
suppresses responses to foveal stimuli. Parietal LS neurons are sensitive
to stimulus movement and direction over a wide range of velocities. The
vectors point either inward toward the center or outward toward the
perimeter of the visual field, and for neurons with bilateral response
areas, the vectors commonly point in opposite directions in the two
half-fields; we term this opponent vector organization. The functional
properties of area 7 LS neurons are such that they could signal motion in
the immediate surround and the apparent motion accompanying head movements
and forward locomotion. We surmise that they contribute to a central neural
image of immediately surrounding space and to the perceptual constancy of
that space obtaining during bodily movement. These properties are suitable
for the attraction of gaze and attention to objects and events in the
peripheral visual fields. It is this system, together with the classes of
parietal neurons concerned with action initiatives, whose destruction is
thought to account for the hemi-inattention and neglect of the parietal
lobe syndrome in primates.
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