A Direct Demonstration of Functional Differences between Subdivisions of Human V5/MT

Samantha L Strong, Edward H Silson, André D Gouws, Antony B Morland, Declan J McKeefry

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Two subdivisions of human V5/MT+: one located posteriorly (MT/TO-1) and the other more anteriorly (MST/TO-2) were identified in human participants using functional magnetic resonance imaging on the basis of their representations of the ipsilateral versus contralateral visual field. These subdivisions were then targeted for disruption by the application of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS). The rTMS was delivered to cortical areas while participants performed direction discrimination tasks involving 3 different types of moving stimuli defined by the translational, radial, or rotational motion of dot patterns. For translational motion, performance was significantly reduced relative to baseline when rTMS was applied to both MT/TO-1 and MST/TO-2. For radial motion, there was a differential effect between MT/TO-1 and MST/TO-2, with only disruption of the latter area affecting performance. The rTMS failed to reveal a complete dissociation between MT/TO-1 and MST/TO-2 in terms of their contribution to the perception of rotational motion. On the basis of these results, MT/TO-1 and MST/TO-2 appear to be functionally distinct subdivisions of hV5/MT+. While both areas appear to be implicated in the processing of translational motion, only the anterior region (MST/TO-2) makes a causal contribution to the perception of radial motion.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1-10
Number of pages10
JournalCerebral Cortex
Volume27
Issue number1
Early online date19 Nov 2016
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Jan 2017

Bibliographical note

© The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Keywords

  • Adult
  • Evoked Potentials, Visual/physiology
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Motion Perception/physiology
  • Nerve Net/physiology
  • Task Performance and Analysis
  • Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation
  • Visual Cortex/physiology
  • Visual Fields/physiology
  • Young Adult

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'A Direct Demonstration of Functional Differences between Subdivisions of Human V5/MT'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this