title: Visually induced activity in human frontal motor areas during simple visuomotor performance.
abstract: Visuomotor tasks elicit neuronal activity in primate motor areas at relatively short latencies. Although this early activity embodies features of visual responses (short latency, stimulus-dependency), its sensory nature has been questioned. We investigated neural correlates of visuomotor performance in human motor areas using scalp and intracranial event-related potential measures. A simple visuomanual reaction-time task evoked early potentials at 133-145 ms post-stimulus which occurred much earlier than the motor potentials of the same region. The amplitude of the early potentials covaried with stimulus location and was independent of parameters of the motor response. Because of their timing, stimulus-dependency and characteristics of our behavioral task, the early potentials are suggested to reflect neuronal responses of sensory nature rather than processing related to pure motor aspects of the task.
authors.affiliation: Functional Brain Mapping Laboratory and Plurifaculty Program of Cognitive Neuroscience, University Hospital of Geneva, Switzerland.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Thut
authors.forename: C A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Hauert
authors.forename: O
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Blanke
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Morand
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Seeck
authors.forename: S L
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Gonzalez
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Grave de Peralta
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Spinelli
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Khateb
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Landis
authors.forename: C M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Michel
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001931:Brain Mapping / Q000379:methods; D004827:Epilepsy / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology; D005071:Evoked Potentials / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009044:Motor Cortex / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000502:physiology*; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology*; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D012535:Scalp / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000502:physiology; D014795:Visual Pathways / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000502:physiology*; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*