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Updated: Aug 14, 2026

Methods to Explore the Influence of Top-down Visual Processes on Motor Behavior
Published on: April 16, 2014
Neurophysiology of perceptual and motor aspects of interception
Hugo Merchant1, Apostolos P Georgopoulos
1Instituto de Neurobiología, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, Querétaro Qro, Mexico.
Abstract:
The interception of moving targets is a complex activity that involves a dynamic interplay of several perceptual and motor processes and therefore involves a rich interaction among several brain areas. Although the behavioral aspects of interception have been studied for the past three decades, it is only during the past decade that neural studies have been focused on this problem. In addition to the interception itself, several neural studies have explored, within that context, the underlying mechanisms concerning perceptual aspects of moving stimuli, such as optic flow and apparent motion. In this review, we discuss the wealth of knowledge that has accumulated on this topic with an emphasis on the results of neural studies in behaving monkeys.
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