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Updated: Apr 6, 2026

A Large Lateral Craniotomy Procedure for Mesoscale Wide-field Optical Imaging of Brain Activity
Published on: May 7, 2017
The human cortical areas V6 and V6A
Sabrina Pitzalis1, Patrizia Fattori2, Claudio Galletti2
1Department of Movement,Human and Health Sciences,University of Rome ''Foro Italico'',Rome,Italy.
Human brain areas V6 and V6A, crucial for visual motion and action, have been mapped using neuroimaging. These visuomotor regions, V6Av and V6Ad, are involved in reaching and pointing movements, similar to macaque counterparts.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Human brain mapping
- Visuomotor processing
Background:
- The medial parieto-occipital sulcus (POS) in macaques contains areas V6 and V6A, vital for visual motion and action.
- Area V6 is retinotopically organized, while V6A is a visuomotor area with ventral (V6Av) and dorsal (V6Ad) subdivisions involved in reaching movements.
Purpose of the Study:
- To map human areas V6, V6Av, and V6Ad using advanced neuroimaging techniques.
- To compare the functional and anatomical properties of these human areas with their macaque homologues.
Main Methods:
- Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)
- Wide-field retinotopy
- Task-evoked activity analysis
Main Results:
- Human V6 was mapped retinotopically and identified as a motion-processing area.
- Human V6Av and V6Ad were functionally defined as pointing-selective visuomotor regions.
- The human areas show close resemblance in organization and function to macaque V6, V6Av, and V6Ad.
Conclusions:
- Human V6 processes information about translating objects in depth during self-motion.
- Information is conveyed to V6A for evaluating object distance in dynamic conditions.
- These areas orchestrate eye and arm movements for interacting with objects in the environment.
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