In Pursuit of Delay-Related Brain Activity for Anticipatory Eye Movements

How the brain stores motion information and subsequently uses it to follow a moving target is largely unknown. This is mainly due to previous fMRI studies using paradigms in which the eye movements cannot be segregated from the storage of this motion information. To avoid this problem we used a novel paradigm designed in our lab in which we interlaced a delay (2, 4 or 6 seconds) between the 1(st) and 2(nd) presentation of a moving stimulus. Using this design we could examine brain activity during a delay period using fMRI and have subsequently found a number of brain areas that reveal sustained activity during predictive pursuit. These areas include, the V5 complex and superior parietal lobe. This study provides new evidence for the network involved in the storage of visual information to generate early motor responses in pursuit.