Open AccessHuman cortical areas involved in sustaining perceptual stability during smooth pursuit eye movements
Author(s) -
Trenner Maja U.,
Fahle Manfred,
Fasold Oliver,
Heekeren Hauke R.,
Villringer Arno,
Wenzel Rüdiger
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
human brain mapping
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.005
H-Index - 191
eISSN - 1097-0193
pISSN - 1065-9471
DOI - 10.1002/hbm.20387
Subject(s) - eye movement , functional magnetic resonance imaging , posterior parietal cortex , neuroscience , psychology , smooth pursuit , perception , visual cortex , visual perception , computer vision , artificial intelligence , computer science
Because both, eye movements and object movements induce an image motion on the retina, eye movements must be compensated to allow a coherent and stable perception of our surroundings. The inferential theory of perception postulates that retinal image motion is compared with an internal reference signal related to eye movements. This mechanism allows to distinguish between the potential sources producing retinal image motion. Referring to this theory, we investigated referential calculation during smooth pursuit eye movements (SPEM) in humans using event‐related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). The blood oxygenation level dependent (BOLD) response related to SPEM in front of a stable background was measured for different parametric steps of preceding motion stimuli and therefore assumed for different states of the referential system. To achieve optimally accurate anatomy and more detectable fMRI signal changes in group analysis, we applied cortex‐based statistics both to all brain volumes and to defined regions of interest. Our analysis revealed that the activity in a temporal region as well as the posterior parietal cortex (PPC) depended on the velocity of the preceding stimuli. Previous single‐cell recordings in monkeys demonstrated that the visual posterior sylvian area (VPS) is relevant for perceptual stability. The activation apparent in our study thus may represent a human analogue of this area. The PPC is known as being strongly related to goal‐directed eye movements. In conclusion, temporal and parietal cortical areas may be involved in referential calculation and thereby in sustaining visual perceptual stability during eye movements. Hum Brain Mapp, 2008. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.