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Updated: Mar 22, 2026

MPI CyberMotion Simulator: Implementation of a Novel Motion Simulator to Investigate Multisensory Path Integration in Three Dimensions
Published on: May 10, 2012
Aligned representation of visual and tactile motion directions in hMT+/V5 and fronto-parietal regions
Iqra Shahzad1, Ceren Battal2,3, Filippo Cerpelloni2,4
1Institute of Neuroscience (IoNS), UCLouvain, Brussels, Belgium. iqra.shahzad@uclouvain.be.
Abstract:
Moving events on the skin can be perceived through vision and touch. How does the brain create a unified multisensory representation of motion directions initially acquired in different coordinate systems? Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we demonstrate that individually and functionally defined hMT+/V5 shows univariate preference for both visual and tactile motion and encodes motion directions across hand postures. Unlike somatosensory regions, information about tactile directions is enhanced in right hMT+/V5 when mapped using an external rather than a somatotopic frame of reference. Crossmodal decoding reveals alignment between tactile and visual motion directions in the right hMT+/V5 (both in MT and MST) only when tactile motion is defined in external space. A whole-brain searchlight analysis extends this aligned representation to parietal and frontal regions. Our findings reveal a network involving right hMT+/V5 and fronto-parietal regions that encodes motion directions in vision and touch using a common external frame of reference.
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