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Updated: Jun 4, 2026

Using Eye-tracking to Assess the Relative Importance of Visual and Vestibular Input to Subcortical Motion Processing in the Roll Plane
Published on: August 22, 2025
Parietal area VIP causally influences heading perception during pursuit eye movements
1Center for Neuroscience, University of California, Davis, California 95618, USA.
None:
The ventral intraparietal area (VIP) of the macaque monkey brain is a multimodal area with visual, vestibular, somatosensory, and eye movement-related responses. The visual responses are strongly directional, and VIP neurons respond well to complex optic flow patterns similar to those found during self-motion. To test the hypothesis that visual responses in VIP directly contribute to the perception of self-motion direction, we used electrical microstimulation to perturb activity in VIP while animals performed a two-alternative heading discrimination task. Microstimulation systematically biased monkeys' choices in a direction consistent with neuronal preferences at the stimulation site, and these effects were larger while the animal was making smooth pursuit eye movements. From these results, we conclude that VIP is causally involved in the perception of self-motion from visual cues and that this involvement is gated by ongoing motor behavior.
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