Abstract
We found that single neurons in the parietal area V6A of the macaque brain deal with all the components of reaching and grasping actions: locating in space the object target of action, directing the eyes toward it, sensing where the arm is in space, directing the arm toward the spatial location where the object is in order to reach and grasp it, adapting the grip to the object shape and size. The knowledge of how the brain codes simple visuomotor acts can be useful to build artificially-intelligent systems that have to interact with objects, localize them, direct their arm toward them, and grasp them with their gripper. Single cell recordings can also be useful in understanding how to perform more complex visuomotor tasks, like interacting with human beings, exchanging objects with them, and acting in an ever changing environment.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsPreview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Galletti, C., Fattori, P., Battaglini, P.P., Shipp, S., Zeki, S.: Functional demarcation of a border between areas V6 and V6A in the superior parietal gyrus of the macaque monkey. Eur. J. Neurosci. 8(1), 30–52 (1996)
Galletti, C., Fattori, P., Kutz, D.F., Gamberini, M.: Brain location and visual topography of cortical area V6A in the macaque monkey. Eur. J. Neurosci. 11(2), 575–582 (1999)
Galletti, C., Fattori, P., Kutz, D.F., Battaglini, P.P.: Arm movement-related neurons in the visual area V6A of the macaque superior parietal lobule. Eur. J. Neurosci. 9(2), 410–413 (1997)
Fattori, P., Gamberini, M., Kutz, D.F., Galletti, C.: ’Arm-reaching’ neurons in the parietal area V6A of the macaque monkey. Eur. J. Neurosci. 13(12), 2309–2313 (2001)
Galletti, C., Kutz, D.F., Gamberini, M., Breveglieri, R., Fattori, P.: Role of the medial parieto-occipital cortex in the control of reaching and grasping movements. Exp. Brain. Res. 153(2), 158–170 (2003)
Galletti, C., Gamberini, M., Kutz, D.F., Fattori, P., Luppino, G., Matelli, M.: The cortical connections of area V6: an occipito-parietal network processing visual information. Eur. J. Neurosci. 13(8), 1572–1588 (2001)
Matelli, M., Govoni, P., Galletti, C., Kutz, D.F., Luppino, G.: Superior area 6 afferents from the superior parietal lobule in the macaque monkey. J. Comp. Neurol. 402(3), 327–352 (1998)
Shipp, S., Blanton, M., Zeki, S.: A visuo-somatomotor pathway through superior parietal cortex in the macaque monkey: cortical connections of areas V6 and V6A. Eur. J. Neurosci. 10(10), 3171–3193 (1998)
Galletti, C., Fattori, P., Gamberini, M., Kutz, D.F.: The most direct visual pathway to the frontal cortex. Cortex 40(1), 216–217 (2004)
Galletti, C., Battaglini, P.P., Fattori, P.: Eye position influence on the parietooccipital area PO (V6) of the macaque monkey. Eur. J. Neurosci. 7(12), 2486–2501 (1995)
Galletti, C., Battaglini, P.P., Fattori, P.: Parietal neurons encoding spatial locations in craniotopic coordinates. Exp. Brain Res. 96(2), 221–229 (1993)
Fogassi, L., Gallese, V., Fadiga, L., Luppino, G., Matelli, M., Rizzolatti, G.: Coding of peripersonal space in inferior premotor cortex (area F4). J. Neurophysiol. 76, 141–157 (1996)
Duhamel, J.R., Bremmer, F., BenHamed, S., Graf, W.: Spatial invariance of visual receptive fields in parietal cortex neurons. Nature 389, 845–848 (1997)
Galletti, C., Fattori, P.: Posterior parietal networks encoding visual space. In: Karnath, H.-O., Milner, A.D., Vallar, G. (eds.) The Cognitive and Neural Bases of Spatial Neglect, pp. 59–69. Oxford University Press, Oxford, New York (2002)
Breveglieri, R., Kutz, D.F., Fattori, P., Gamberini, M., Galletti, C.: Somatosensory cells in the parieto-occipital area V6A of the macaque. Neuroreport 13(16), 2113–2116 (2002)
Fattori, P., Kutz, D.F., Breveglieri, R., Marzocchi, N., Galletti, C.: Spatial tuning of reaching activity in the medial parieto-occipital cortex (area V6A) of macaque monkey. Eur. J. Neurosci. 22(4), 956–972 (2005)
Fattori, P., Breveglieri, R., Amoroso, K., Galletti, C.: Evidence for both reaching and grasping activity in the medial parieto-occipital cortex of the macaque. Eur. J. Neurosci. 20(9), 2457–2466 (2004)
Maniadakis, M., Hourdakis, E., Trahanias, P.: Modeling Overlapping Execution/Observation Brain Pathways. In: The International Joint Conference on Neural Networks (IJCNN) (accepted for publication, 2007)
Birbaumer, N., Weber, C., Neuper, C., Buch, E., Haagen, K., Cohen, L.: Physiological regulation of thinking: brain-computer interface (BCI) research. Progress in Brain Research 19, 369–391 (2006)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2007 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Patrizia, F., Rossella, B., Nicoletta, M., Michail, M., Claudio, G. (2007). Brain Area V6A: A Cognitive Model for an Embodied Artificial Intelligence. In: Lungarella, M., Iida, F., Bongard, J., Pfeifer, R. (eds) 50 Years of Artificial Intelligence. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 4850. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-77296-5_20
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-77296-5_20
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-77295-8
Online ISBN: 978-3-540-77296-5
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)