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1 Cognitive Neurology, Hertie-Institut for clinical brain research, Tuebingen, Germany
2 Section for Experimental Anesthesiology, Freiburg, Germany
* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: uwe.ilg{at}uni-tuebingen.de.
The contributions of the middle superior temporal area (MST) in the posterior parietal cortex of rhesus monkeys to the generation of smooth pursuit eye movements as well as the contributions to motion perception are well-established. Here, we present first experimental evidence that this area also contributes to the generation of goal-directed hand movements towards a moving target. This evidence is based on the outcome of intracortical microstimulation experiments and transient lesions by small injections of muscimol at identified sites within the lateral part of area MST (MST-l). When microstimulation was applied during the execution of smooth pursuit eye movements, post-saccadic eye velocity in the direction of the preferred direction of the stimulated site increased significantly (93 out of 136 sites tested). When microstimulation was applied during a hand movement trial, the hand movement was displaced significantly in the same direction (28 of 39 sites tested). When we lesioned area MST-l transiently by injections of muscimol, steady state eye velocity was exclusively reduced for ipsiversive smooth pursuit eye movements. In contrast, hand movements were displaced towards the contralateral side, irrespective of the direction of the moving target. Our results provide evidence that area MST-l is involved in the processing of moving targets and plays a role in the execution of smooth pursuit eye movements as well as visually guided hand movements.
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