Spatial representations for action in parietal cortex

Abstract

Parietal cortex contains multiple representations of visual space. Single neurons in area LIP encode attended locations relative to the fovea, while some VIP neurons encode stimulus location relative to the head and some MIP neurons may encode location relative to the arm. These multiple representations are tailored to guide specific kinds of actions: eye movements, head movements and arm movements, respectively. The function of parietal cortex is to signal the location of attended objects relative to the observer. It does so in order to allow the organism to act on its environment. The many different kinds of actions that can be performed are likely to be supported by these very different kinds of spatial representations.