Directional tuning for eye and arm movements in overlapping regions in human posterior parietal cortex

• Published in: NeuroImage (Orlando, Fla.) Vol. 191; pp. 234 - 242
• Main Authors: Magri, Caterina, Fabbri, Sara, Caramazza, Alfonso, Lingnau, Angelika
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Elsevier Inc 01-05-2019; Elsevier Limited
• Subjects: Adult; Arm; Arm - physiology; arm movements; Brain mapping; Cortex (parietal); directional tuning; Experiments; Eye movements; Eye Movements - physiology; Female; Functional magnetic resonance imaging; Humans; Male; Middle Aged; Movement - physiology; Parietal Lobe - physiology; posterior parietal cortex; Psychomotor Performance - physiology; representational similarity analysis; saccadic eye movements; Spheres; Superior parietal lobule; Young Adult; representational similarity analysis; saccadic eye movements; directional tuning; posterior parietal cortex; arm movements
• ISSN: 1053-8119; 1095-9572
• DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2019.02.029

A network of frontal and parietal regions is known to be recruited during the planning and execution of arm and eye movements. While movements of the two effectors are typically coupled with each other, it remains unresolved how information is shared between them. Here we aimed to identify regions containing neuronal populations that show directional tuning for both arm and eye movements. In two separate fMRI experiments, the same participants were scanned while performing a center-out arm or eye movement task. Using a whole-brain searchlight-based representational similarity analysis (RSA), we found that a bilateral region in the posterior superior parietal lobule represents both arm and eye movement direction, thus extending previous findings in monkeys.
•Directional tuning in superior parietal lobule (SPL) for arm and eye movements.•Overlapping representations for both effectors in posterior SPL.•Underlying patterns of activation do not generalize across effectors.