The function of the parietal lobe has been a topic of great interest, its study stimulated by the profound and intriguing perceptual and motor deficits resulting from parietal lobe lesions in humans. The specific role of the parietal cortex has always been a matter of great controversy, with different laboratories emphasizing seemingly exclusive interpretations of parietal lobe functions arranged around a line separating sensory input and motor output, both possibly modulated by attention. Recent work based on awake, behaving monkeys and the study of patients with parietal lobe lesions have unmasked the sensory versus motor dichotomy of parietal lobe function as being both arbitrary and simplistic. The present book conveys the current view of parietal lobe functions, centering around the idea that parietal lobe areas act as true sensorimotor interfaces contributing to the sensory guidance of movement and to the perception of space by offering non-sensory, mental representations of space suited to the needs of the specific task. It is largely based on a conference on parietal lobe functions held in Tiibingen, Germany, in the early summer of 1995. The major goal of this meeting was to further the exchange between neurophysiologists and neuropsychologists interested in this part of the brain. This book aims to cast the productive discussions of this conference into a state-of-the-art overview of present thinking on the role of the parietal lobes and their specific contributions to eye movements, reaching and grasping, attention, perception, and the representation of space.

Functional Anatomy of the Parietal Lobe and its Connections

Neglect, Extinction, and the Cortical Streams of Visual Processing
Parietal Lobe and the Visual Control of Movement
Input from the Cerebellum and Motor Cortical Areas to the Parietal Association Cortex
Direct Bilateral Cortical Projections to the Vestibular Complex in Macaque Monkey
Superior Parietal Lobule Involvement in the Representation of Visual Space: a PET Review
Eye Movements and Beyond
Multiple Parietal "Eye Fields": Insights from Electrical Microstimulation
Area LIP and the Population Vector: Single and Double Targets
Posterior Parietal Cortex Control of Saccades in Humans
Specific Parietal Lobe Contribution to Spatial Constancy Across Saccades
MST Neurons are Activated by Smooth Pursuit of Imaginary Targets
A Cortically Mediated Visual Stabilization Mechanism with Ultrashort Latency in Primates
Eye Movement Control in Spatial and Object-Based Neglect
Reaching and Grasping
From Vision to Movement: Cortico-Cortical Connections and Combinatorial Properties of Reaching-Related Neurons in Parietal Areas V6 and V6A
Parietal Visual Neurons Coding Three-Dimensional Characteristics of Objects and Their Relation to Hand Action
A Parietal-Frontal Circuit for Hand Grasping Movements in the Monkey: Evidence from Reversible Inactivation Experiments
Reaching, Grasping, and Bimanual Coordination with Special Reference to the Posterior Parietal Cortex
Optic Ataxia and Unilateral Neglect: Clinical Evidence for Dissociable Spatial Functions in Posterior Parietal Cortex
Distinguishing Sensory and Motor Deficits After Parietal Damage: An Evaluation of Response Selection Biases in Unilateral Neglect
On the Role of the Egocentric and the Allocentric Frame of Reference in theControl of Arm Movements
Attention and Perception
Attentional Modulation of Visual Signal Processing in the Parietal Cortex
Attentional Modulation of Visual Receptive Fields in the Posterior Parietal Cortex of the Behaving Macaque
Object-Based Attention in Visual Neglect: Conceptual and Empirical Distinctions
Extinction as a Paradigm Measure of Attentional Bias and Restricted Capacity Following Brain Injury
Is Extinction Following Parietal Damage an Interhemispheric Disconnection Phenomenon?
Action and Perception in the Visual Periphery
Representation of Space
The Spatial Features of Unilateral Neglect
Neural Encoding of Space Egocentric Coordinates?
Lesion in a Basis Function Model of Parietal Cortex: Comparison with Hemineglect
Neuronal Coding of Visual Space in the Posterior Parietal Cortex
Modulation of the Neglect Syndrome by Sensory Stimulation
Ipsilesional Displacement of Egocentric Midline in Neglect Patients with, but Not in Those Without, Extensive Right Parietal Damage
Analysis of Self-Motion by Parietal Neurons
The Representation of Movement in Near Extra-Personal Space in the Macaque Ventral Intraparietal Area (VIP).