Separate body- and world-referenced representations of visual space in parietal cortex

In order to direct a movement towards a visual stimulus, visualspatial information must be combined with postural information. For example, directing gaze (eye plus head) towards a visible target requires the combination of retinal image location with eye and head position to determine the location...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature (London) 1998-08, Vol.394 (6696), p.887-891
Main Authors: Andersen, Richard A, Snyder, Lawrence H, Grieve, Kenneth L, Brotchie, Peter
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Anatomical correlates of behavior
Animals
Behavioral psychophysiology
Biological and medical sciences
Brain
Eye
Eyes & eyesight
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Head
Humanities and Social Sciences
letter
Macaca mulatta
Male
multidisciplinary
Neurons - physiology
Orientation - physiology
Parietal Lobe - physiology
Posture - physiology
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Saccades - physiology
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
Space life sciences
Space Perception - physiology
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Summary:In order to direct a movement towards a visual stimulus, visualspatial information must be combined with postural information. For example, directing gaze (eye plus head) towards a visible target requires the combination of retinal image location with eye and head position to determine the location of the target relative to the body. Similarly, world-referenced postural information is required to determine where something lies in the world. Posterior parietal neurons recorded in monkeys combine visual information with eye and head position. A population of such cells could make up a distributed representation of target location in an extraretinal frame of reference. However, previous studies have not distinguished between world-referenced and body-referenced signals,. Here we report that modulations of visual signals (gain fields) in two adjacent cortical fields, LIP and 7a, are referenced to the body and to the world, respectively. This segregation of spatial information is consistent with a streaming of information, with one path carrying body-referenced information for the control of gaze, and the other carrying world-referenced information for navigation and other tasks that require an absolute frame of reference.
ISSN:0028-0836
1476-4687
DOI:10.1038/29777