Dynamic Analysis of Information Processing in Brain for Reaching Movements

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The ventral premotor cortex (PMv)' of monkeys has been assumed to exert bilateral control over arm movements. However, it has been suggested recently that the PMv is the site where spatial visual inputs are transformed to moter commands. Then, an apperent relation to bilateral arm movements may be regarded as a neural process closer to the inputs from both visual hemifields. On the other hand, if neural processing is closer to the final motor commands, neuronal activity is expected to be more closely related to contralateral arm movements. To examine these possibilities, in the presence of shift prisms that dissociated visual from motor space, two monkeys were trained to reach a visually presented target by either their right or left arm. Before target presentation, auditory cues instructed which arm should be used for the task. Three types of movement-related activities were recorded in PMv : the first reflected visual, but not motor, space (V neurons) ; the second reflected motor, but not visual, space (M neurons) ; and the third was intermediate. V tended to be related to bilateral and M neurons to contralateral arm movements. The findings seem to support the above view on the role of PMv in visually guided arm movements.