title: Motor functions of the parietal lobe.
abstract: There is now general agreement that the posterior parietal cortex is part of the motor system. New data have confirmed its fundamental role in visuomotor transformations. Most interestingly, recent data showed that the inferior parietal lobule codes motor acts (such as grasping) in a specific way according to the action in which they are embedded. This particular motor organization appears to provide a neural mechanism for higher order cognitive motor functions, including understanding of intention. These functions, and peripersonal space representation, are represented in areas of the inferior parietal lobule, where visual information from both the dorsal and the ventral stream is integrated with motor information.
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Neuroscienze, Sezione Fisiologia, Università di Parma, Via Volturno 39, 43100 Parma, Italy. fogassi@unipr.it
authors.forename: Leonardo
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Fogassi
authors.forename: Giuseppe
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Luppino
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004525:Efferent Pathways / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D009044:Motor Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D010296:Parietal Lobe / Q000502:physiology*; D011323:Primates / Q000502:physiology; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology; D013028:Space Perception / Q000502:physiology