RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Different Representations of Potential and Selected Motor Plans by Distinct Parietal Areas
JF The Journal of Neuroscience
JO J. Neurosci.
FD Society for Neuroscience
SP 18130
OP 18136
DO 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.6247-10.2011
VO 31
IS 49
A1 Cui, He
A1 Andersen, Richard A.
YR 2011
UL http://www.jneurosci.org/content/31/49/18130.abstract
AB Traditional theories have considered decision making as a separate neural process occurring before action planning. However, recent neurophysiological studies of spatial target selection have suggested that decision making and motor planning may be performed in an integrated manner. It was proposed that multiple potential plans are concurrently formed and the ultimately selected action simultaneously emerges within the same circuits (Shadlen and Newsome, 2001; Cisek and Kalaska, 2010). In the present study, we recorded from the parietal reach region (PRR) and dorsal area 5 (area 5d) in the posterior parietal cortex (PPC) while monkeys performed a nonspatial effector (saccade vs reach) choice task. The results show that PRR encodes potential and selected reach plans whereas area 5d encodes only selected reach plans, suggesting a serial visuomotor cortical circuitry for nonspatial effector decisions. Thus, there appears to be a different flow of processing for decisions and planning for spatial target selection, which is more integrated, and nonspatial effector decisions between eye and limb movements, which are more serial.