Elsevier

Current Opinion in Neurobiology

Volume 24, February 2014, Pages 39-46
Current Opinion in Neurobiology

Multisensory maps in parietal cortex

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conb.2013.08.014Get rights and content
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Highlights

  • A new parietal multisensory area integrates lower body and lower visual field.

  • Rearrangement of parietal areas in human and non-human primates is rationalized.

  • In vivo myelin mapping outlines some parietal multisensory areas.

  • Multisensory parietal areas transform visual maps into non-retinocentric coordinates.

Parietal cortex has long been known to be a site of sensorimotor integration. Recent findings in humans have shown that it is divided up into a number of small areas somewhat specialized for eye movements, reaching, and hand movements, but also face-related movements (avoidance, eating), lower body movements, and movements coordinating multiple body parts. The majority of these areas contain rough sensory (receptotopic) maps, including a substantial multisensory representation of the lower body and lower visual field immediately medial to face VIP. There is strong evidence for retinotopic remapping in LIP and face-centered remapping in VIP, and weaker evidence for hand-centered remapping. The larger size of the functionally distinct inferior parietal default mode network in humans compared to monkeys results in a superior and medial displacement of middle parietal areas (e.g., the saccade-related LIP's). Multisensory superior parietal areas located anterior to the angular gyrus such as AIP and VIP are less medially displaced relative to macaque monkeys, so that human LIP paradoxically ends up medial to human VIP.

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