Cerebral Cortex Advance Access published online on June 5, 2009
Cerebral Cortex, doi:10.1093/cercor/bhp112
Human V6: The Medial Motion Area
1 Department of Education in Sport and Human Movement, University of Rome "Foro Italico," 00194 Rome, Italy, 2 NeuroImaging Laboratory and Laboratory of Neuropsychology, Santa Lucia Foundation, 00179 Rome, Italy, 3 Department of Cognitive Science, University of California, San Diego, CA 92093, USA, 4 Department of Psychology, University College London, London WC1E 7HX, UK, 5 Department of Psychology, Birkbeck College, University of London, London WC1H 0AP, UK, 6 Department of Clinical Sciences and Bioimaging, and ITAB, University Gabriele d'Annunzio, 66013 Chieti, Italy, 7 Department of Human and General Physiology, University of Bologna, 40126 Bologna, Italy, 8 Department of Psychology, Sapienza University, 00185 Rome, Italy
Address correspondence to Sabrina Pitzalis, Department of Education in Sport and Human Movement, University of Rome "Foro Italico," 00194 Rome, Italy. Email: sabrina.pitzalis{at}iusm.it.
Cortical-surface-based functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging mapping techniques and wide-field retinotopic stimulation were used to verify the presence of pattern motion sensitivity in human area V6. Area V6 is highly selective for coherently moving fields of dots, both at individual and group levels and even with a visual stimulus of standard size. This stimulus is a functional localizer for V6. The wide retinotopic stimuli used here also revealed a retinotopic map in the middle temporal cortex (area MT/V5) surrounded by several polar-angle maps that resemble the mosaic of small areas found around macaque MT/V5. Our results suggest that the MT complex (MT+) may be specialized for the analysis of motion signals, whereas area V6 may be more involved in distinguishing object and self-motion.
Key Words: flowfields • functional localizer • MT/V5 • parieto-occipital cortex • wide-field retinotopic mapping