Related Experiment Videos
Visual area V5/MT remembers "what" but not "where"
Gianluca Campana1, Alan Cowey, Vincent Walsh
1Dipartimento di Psicologia Generale, Università di Padova, Via Venezia 8, 35131 Padova, Italy. gianluca.campana@unipd.it
Cerebral Cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991)
|January 13, 2006
Summary
Priming for motion direction relies on the V5/MT area. Spatial position priming, however, does not, suggesting it
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Cognitive Neuroscience
- Visual Perception
Background:
- Priming for motion direction is known to depend on the extrastriate area V5/MT.
- The retinotopic organization of V5/MT and its role in motion adaptation suggest a potential role in spatial position priming.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the role of V5/MT in priming of spatial position, in addition to its established role in priming of motion direction.
- To determine where spatial position information is stored during the intertrial interval.
Main Methods:
- Disruption of V5/MT using repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) during the intertrial interval.
- Assessment of the effects of rTMS on priming of motion direction and priming of spatial position.
Main Results:
- Disruption of V5/MT abolished priming of motion direction.
- Disruption of V5/MT had no effect on priming of spatial position.
- These findings indicate that V5/MT is crucial for motion direction priming but not spatial position priming.
Conclusions:
- The attribute of spatial position is likely stored in short-term memory outside of V5/MT.
- Potential storage areas for spatial position include earlier motion pathway areas (e.g., V3) or higher cortical areas (e.g., posterior parietal cortex, frontal eye fields).
- These results differentiate the neural substrates for motion direction and spatial position priming.