Skip to main content
Log in

Space coding by premotor cortex

  • Research Note
  • Published:
Experimental Brain Research Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Summary

Many neurons in inferior area 6, a cortical premotor area, respond to visual stimuli presented in the space around the animal. We were interested to learn whether the receptive fields of these neurons are coded in retinotopic or in body-centered coordinates. To this purpose we recorded single neurons from inferior area 6 (F4 sector) in a monkey trained to fixate a light and detect its dimming. During fixation visual stimuli were moved towards the monkey both within and outside the neurons's receptive field. The fixation point was then moved and the neuron retested with the monkey's gaze deviated to the new location. The results showed that most inferior area 6 visual neurons code the stimulus position in spatial and not in retinal coordinates. It is proposed that these visual neurons are involved in generating the stable body-centered frame of reference necesary for programming visually guided movements.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Andersen RA, Mountcastle VB (1983) The influence of the angle of gaze upon the excitability of the light-sensitivity neurons of the posterior parietal cortex. J Neurosci 3: 532–548

    Google Scholar 

  • Andersen RA, Essick GK, Siegel RM (1985) Encoding of spatial location by posterior parietal neurons. Science 230: 456–458

    Google Scholar 

  • Battaglini PP, Fattori P, Galletti C, Zeki S (1990) The physiology of area V6 in the awake, behaving monkey. J Physiol (London) 423:100P

    Google Scholar 

  • Bruce CJ (1988) Single neuron activity in the monkey's prefrontal cortex. In: Rakic P, Singer W (eds) Neurobiology of neocortex. Wiley, New York, pp 297–329

    Google Scholar 

  • Feldman JA (1985) Four Frames suffice: a provisional model of vision and space. Behav Brain Sci 8: 265–289

    Google Scholar 

  • Ferrigno G, Pedotti A (1985) ELITE: a digital dedicated hardware system for movement analysis via real-time TV-signal system processing. IEEE Trans Biomed Eng BME 32: 943–950

    Google Scholar 

  • Fuchs AF, Robinson DA (1966) A method for measuring horizontal and vertical eye movement chronically in the monkey. J Appl Physiol 21: 1068–1070

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Galletti C, Battaglini PP (1989) Gaze-dependent visual neurons in area V3A of monkey prestriate cortex. J Neurosci 9: 1112–1125

    Google Scholar 

  • Gentilucci M, Scandolara C, Pigarev IN, Rizzolatti G (1983) Visual responses in the postarcuate cortex (area 6) of the monkey that are independent of eye position. Exp Brain Res 50: 464–468

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Gentilucci M, Fogassi L, Luppino G, Matelli M, Camarda RM, Rizzolatti G (1988) Functional organization of inferior area 6 in the macaque monkey. I. Somatotopy and the control of proximal movements. Exp Brain Res 71: 475–490

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Goldberg ME, Bruce CJ (1990) Primate frontal eye fields. III. Maintenance of a spatially accurate saccade signal. J Neurophysiol 64: 489–508

    Google Scholar 

  • Hyvarinen J (1982) Posterior parietal lobe of the primate brain. Physiol Rev 62: 1060–1129

    Google Scholar 

  • Lynch JC (1980) The functional organization of the posterior parietal association cortex. Behav Brain Sci 3: 485–534

    Google Scholar 

  • Matelli M, Luppino G, Rizzolatti G (1985) Patterns of cytochrome oxidase activity in the frontal agranular cortex of macaque monkey. Behav Brain Res 18: 125–137

    Google Scholar 

  • Matelli M, Camarda RM, Glickstein M, Rizzolatti G (1986) Afferent and efferent projections of the inferior area 6 in the macaque monkey. J Comp Neurol 251: 281–298

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Matsumura M, Kubota K (1979) Cortical projection of hand-arm motor area from postarcuate area in macaque monkey: a histological study of retrograde transport of horseradish peroxidase. Neurosci Lett 11: 241–246

    Google Scholar 

  • Muakkassa KF, Strick PL (1979) Frontal lobe inputs to primate motor cortex: evidence for four somatotopically organized ‘premotor’ areas. Brain Res 177: 176–182

    Google Scholar 

  • Pigarev IN, Rodionova EI (1986) Neurons with visual receptive fields independent of eye position in the caudal part of the ventral bank of the cat cruciate sulcus. Neurophysiology (Kiev) 18: 800

    Google Scholar 

  • Pigarev IN, Rodionova EI (1988) Neurons with visual receptive fields independent of the position of eyes in cat parietal cortex. Sensor Syst (Moscow) 2: 245–254

    Google Scholar 

  • Rizzolatti G, Gallese V (1988) Mechanism and theory of spatial neglect. In: Boller F, Grafman J (eds) Handbook of neuropsychology, Vol I. Elsevier, Amsterdam, pp 223–246

    Google Scholar 

  • Rizzolatti G, Camarda RM, Fogassi L, Luppino G, Matelli M (1988) Functional organization of inferior area 6 in the macaque monkey. II. Area F5 and the control of distal movements. Exp Brain Res 71: 491–507

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Schlag J, Schlag-Rey M, Peck CK, Joseph JP (1980) Visual responses of thalamic neurons depending on the direction of gaze and the position of targets in space. Exp Brain Res 40: 170–184

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Fogassi, L., Gallese, V., di Pellegrino, G. et al. Space coding by premotor cortex. Exp Brain Res 89, 686–690 (1992). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00229894

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00229894

Key words

Navigation