title: Specificity of human parietal saccade and reach regions during transcranial magnetic stimulation.
abstract: Single-unit recordings in macaque monkeys have identified effector-specific regions in posterior parietal cortex (PPC), but functional neuroimaging in the human has yielded controversial results. Here we used on-line repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) to determine saccade and reach specificity in human PPC. A short train of three TMS pulses (separated by an interval of 100 ms) was delivered to superior parieto-occipital cortex (SPOC), a region over the midposterior intraparietal sulcus (mIPS), and a site close to caudal IPS situated over the angular gyrus (AG) during a brief memory interval while subjects planned either a saccade or reach with the left or right hand. Behavioral measures then were compared to controls without rTMS. Stimulation of mIPS and AG produced similar patterns: increased end-point variability for reaches and decreased saccade accuracy for contralateral targets. In contrast, stimulation of SPOC deviated reach end points toward visual fixation and had no effect on saccades. Contralateral-limb specificity was highest for AG and lowest for SPOC. Visual feedback of the hand negated rTMS-induced disruptions of the reach plan for mIPS and AG, but not SPOC. These results suggest that human SPOC is specialized for encoding retinally peripheral reach goals, whereas more anterior-lateral regions (mIPS and AG) along the IPS possess overlapping maps for saccade and reach planning and are more closely involved in motor details (i.e., planning the reach vector for a specific hand). This work provides the first causal evidence for functional specificity of these parietal regions in healthy humans.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Vision Research, York University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M3J 1P3. mvesia@mac.com
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Vesia
authors.forename: Steven L
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Prime
authors.forename: Xiaogang
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Yan
authors.forename: Lauren E
authors.initials: LE
authors.lastname: Sergio
authors.forename: J Douglas
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Crawford
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001931:Brain Mapping / Q000379:methods; D056344:Executive Function / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009068:Movement / Q000502:physiology*; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010296:Parietal Lobe / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000502:physiology*; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology*; D012438:Saccades / Q000502:physiology*; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis; D050781:Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D014836:Volition / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult