title: Influence of visually guided tracking arm movements on single cell activity in area MT.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Department of Zoology and Neurobiology, Ruhr University of Bochum, Universita¨tsstraße 150, ND 7/67, 44780 Bochum, Germany.
authors.forename: Sabine
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Dannenberg
authors.forename: Marc Alwin
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Gieselmann
authors.forename: Wolfgang
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Kruse
authors.forename: Klaus-Peter
authors.initials: KP
authors.lastname: Hoffmann
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001132:Arm / Q000294:innervation / Q000502:physiology*; D008253:Macaca mulatta; D008297:Male; D009039:Motion Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D009046:Motor Neurons / Q000502:physiology; D009068:Movement / Q000502:physiology*; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology*; D014793:Visual Cortex / Q000166:cytology* / Q000502:physiology*