The contributions of vestibular signals to the representations of space in the posterior parietal cortex

Abstract

Vestibular signals play an important role in spatial orientation, perception of object location, and control of self-motion. Prior physiological research on vestibular information processing has focused on brainstem mechanisms; relatively little is known about the processing of vestibular information at the level of the cerebral cortex. Recent electrophysiological experiments examining the use of vestibular canal signals in two different perceptual tasks are described: computation of self motion and localization of visual stimuli in a world-centered reference frame. These two perceptual functions are mediated by different parts of the posterior parietal cortex, the former in the dorsal aspect of the medial superior temporal area (MSTd) and the latter in area 7a.