Influence of visually guided tracking arm movements on single cell activity in area MT
S. Dannenberg, M.A. Gieselmann, W. Kruse & K.-P. Hoffmann
Exp. Brain Res. In press
- The behavioral relevance of neuronal activity in primate area MT for motion perception and control of visually
guided eye movements is well documented. The projections of area MT comprise connections to subcortical structures
and to the parietal network, both of which play a role in visuospatial transformation for guiding eyes and hands.
Here, we have investigated, whether area MT is involved in the network needed to control visually guided arm movements.
Our results show that half of the neurons tested significantly modulated their activity during visually guided
arm movements. We conclude that the main reason for the neuronal modulation is not the arm movement per se, but
the use of information from MT for visual feedback in the tracking movement. Moreover, control experiments show
that attentional effects cannot solely cause the neuronal modulation. Thus, our study provides strong evidence
that area MT is involved in processing visual information for visually guided manual tracking movements.
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