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Updated: Jul 18, 2025

Assessing Corticospinal Excitability During Goal-Directed Reaching Behavior
Published on: December 2, 2022
Cortical contribution to visuomotor coordination in locomotion and reaching
Trevor Drew1, Nicolas Fortier-Lebel1, Toshi Nakajima2
1Département de Neurosciences, Centre Interdisciplinaire de Recherche sur le Cerveau et l'Apprentissage (CIRCA), Groupe de recherche sur la signalisation neurale et la circuiterie (SNC), Université de Montréal, Pavillon Paul-G. Desmarais, C.P. 6128, Succursale Centre-ville, Montréal, Québec, H3C 3J7, Canada.
Abstract:
One of the hallmarks of mammals is their ability to make precise visually guided limb movements to attain objects. This is best exemplified by the reach and grasp movements of primates, although it is not unique to this mammalian order. Precise, coordinated, visually guided movements are equally as important during locomotion in many mammalian species, especially in predators. In this context, vision is used to guide paw trajectory and placement. In this review we examine the contribution of the fronto-parietal network in the control of such movements. We suggest that this network is responsible for visuomotor coordination across behaviours and species. We further argue for analogies between cytoarchitectonically similar cortical areas in primates and cats.
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