Nature Neuroscience5, 1345 - 1352 (2002)
Published online: 4 November 2002; | doi:10.1038/nn969
Human fMRI evidence for the neural correlates of preparatory set
Jason D. Connolly1, Melvyn A. Goodale1, Ravi S. Menon2
& Douglas P. Munoz3
1
CIHR Group on Action and Perception, Department of Psychology, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario N6C 5C2, Canada
2
Robarts Research Institute, Box 5015, 100 Perth Drive, London, Ontario N6A 5K8, Canada
3
Center for Neuroscience Studies, Department of Physiology, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario K7L 3N6, Canada
Correspondence should be addressed to Melvyn A. Goodale mgoodale@uwo.ca
We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to study readiness and intention signals in frontal and parietal areas that have been implicated in planning saccadic eye movements—the frontal eye fields (FEF) and intraparietal sulcus (IPS). To track fMRI signal changes correlated with readiness to act, we used an event-related design with variable gap periods between disappearance of the fixation point and appearance of the target. To track changes associated with intention, subjects were instructed before the gap period to make either a pro-saccade (look at target) or an anti-saccade (look away from target). FEF activation increased during the gap period and was higher for anti- than for pro-saccade trials. No signal increases were observed during the gap period in the IPS. Our findings suggest that within the frontoparietal networks that control saccade generation, the human FEF, but not the IPS, is critically involved in preparatory set, coding both the readiness and intention to perform a particular movement.
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