Neurophysiology of Perceptual and Motor Aspects of Interception

1 Instituto de Neurobiología, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, Querétaro Qro, Mexico; 2 Brain Sciences Center, Veterans Affairs Medical Center; and 3 Departments of Neuroscience, 4 Neurology, 5 Psychiatry, and 6 Cognitive Sciences Center, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota Submitted 26 April 2005; accepted in final form 1 September 2005 ABSTRACT The interception of moving targets is a complex activity that involves a dynamic interplay of several perceptual and motor processes and therefore involves a rich interaction among several brain areas. Although the behavioral aspects of interception have been studied for the past three decades, it is only during the past decade that neural studies have been focused on this problem. In addition to the interception itself, several neural studies have explored, within that context, the underlying mechanisms concerning perceptual aspects of moving stimuli, such as optic flow and apparent motion. In this review, we discuss the wealth of knowledge that has accumulated on this topic with an emphasis on the results of neural studies in behaving monkeys. Address for reprint requests and other correspondence: A. P. Georgopoulos, Brain Sciences Center (11B), Veterans Affairs Medical Center, One Veterans Dr., Minneapolis, MN 55417 (E-mail: omega{at}umn.edu )