Abstract
The human posterior parietal cortex (PPC) is involved in the encoding of both visual motion and numerical magnitude. In non human primates, neurons have been found in PPC that are selective for both motion direction and magnitude. Whether such neurons also exist in human PPC is not known. Here we investigated this hypothesis using state-dependent transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). Participants were adapted to a specific motion direction (either leftward or rightward), after which they performed a magnitude comparison task, with TMS applied at the onset of each trial. Our hypothesis was that neurons tuned to leftward motion may also be sensitive to small magnitudes and neurons tuned to rightward motion may also be sensitive to large magnitudes, a mapping that may have developed via spatial attentional mechanisms. Our results supported this view by showing that the effect of PPC TMS on small and large numbers depended on the motion direction being adapted, thus suggesting that there may be a functional overlap in neuronal representations of motion direction and numerical magnitude in human PPC.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 145-149 |
| Number of pages | 5 |
| Journal | Neuroscience Letters |
| Volume | 490 |
| Issue number | 2 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Feb 25 2011 |
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Keywords
- Adaptation
- Motion processing
- Number processing
- Parietal cortex
- State-dependency
- TMS
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Neuroscience(all)
Cite this
Overlapping representations of numerical magnitude and motion direction in the posterior parietal cortex : A TMS-adaptation study. / Renzi, Chiara; Vecchi, Tomaso; Silvanto, Juha; Cattaneo, Zaira.
In: Neuroscience Letters, Vol. 490, No. 2, 25.02.2011, p. 145-149.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - Overlapping representations of numerical magnitude and motion direction in the posterior parietal cortex
T2 - A TMS-adaptation study
AU - Renzi, Chiara
AU - Vecchi, Tomaso
AU - Silvanto, Juha
AU - Cattaneo, Zaira
PY - 2011/2/25
Y1 - 2011/2/25
N2 - The human posterior parietal cortex (PPC) is involved in the encoding of both visual motion and numerical magnitude. In non human primates, neurons have been found in PPC that are selective for both motion direction and magnitude. Whether such neurons also exist in human PPC is not known. Here we investigated this hypothesis using state-dependent transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). Participants were adapted to a specific motion direction (either leftward or rightward), after which they performed a magnitude comparison task, with TMS applied at the onset of each trial. Our hypothesis was that neurons tuned to leftward motion may also be sensitive to small magnitudes and neurons tuned to rightward motion may also be sensitive to large magnitudes, a mapping that may have developed via spatial attentional mechanisms. Our results supported this view by showing that the effect of PPC TMS on small and large numbers depended on the motion direction being adapted, thus suggesting that there may be a functional overlap in neuronal representations of motion direction and numerical magnitude in human PPC.
AB - The human posterior parietal cortex (PPC) is involved in the encoding of both visual motion and numerical magnitude. In non human primates, neurons have been found in PPC that are selective for both motion direction and magnitude. Whether such neurons also exist in human PPC is not known. Here we investigated this hypothesis using state-dependent transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). Participants were adapted to a specific motion direction (either leftward or rightward), after which they performed a magnitude comparison task, with TMS applied at the onset of each trial. Our hypothesis was that neurons tuned to leftward motion may also be sensitive to small magnitudes and neurons tuned to rightward motion may also be sensitive to large magnitudes, a mapping that may have developed via spatial attentional mechanisms. Our results supported this view by showing that the effect of PPC TMS on small and large numbers depended on the motion direction being adapted, thus suggesting that there may be a functional overlap in neuronal representations of motion direction and numerical magnitude in human PPC.
KW - Adaptation
KW - Motion processing
KW - Number processing
KW - Parietal cortex
KW - State-dependency
KW - TMS
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UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=79451475063&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.neulet.2010.12.045
DO - 10.1016/j.neulet.2010.12.045
M3 - Article
C2 - 21193017
AN - SCOPUS:79451475063
VL - 490
SP - 145
EP - 149
JO - Neuroscience Letters
JF - Neuroscience Letters
SN - 0304-3940
IS - 2
ER -