Citation

Desmurget M, Epstein CM, Turner RS, Prablanc C, Alexander GE, Grafton ST. Nat. Neurosci. 1999; 2(6): 563-567.

Affiliation

Emory University School of Medicine, Department of Neurology, Woodruff Memorial Building, Suite 6000, P.O. drawer V, Atlanta, Georgia 30322, USA.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1999, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1038/9219

PMID

10448222

Abstract

The exact role of posterior parietal cortex (PPC) in visually directed reaching is unknown. We propose that, by building an internal representation of instantaneous hand location, PPC computes a dynamic motor error used by motor centers to correct the ongoing trajectory. With unseen right hands, five subjects pointed to visual targets that either remained stationary or moved during saccadic eye movements. Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) was applied over the left PPC during target presentation. Stimulation disrupted path corrections that normally occur in response to target jumps, but had no effect on those directed at stationary targets. Furthermore, left-hand movement corrections were not blocked, ruling out visual or oculomotor effects of stimulation.

Language: en