View article

We investigated the properties of neurons located in the distal forelimb field of dorsal premotor area F2 of macaque monkey using a behavioral paradigm for studying the neuronal discharge during observation (object fixation condition) and grasping of different 3-dimensional objects with and without visual guidance of the movement (movement in light and movement in dark conditions, respectively). The main result is that almost all studied neurons were selective for both the type of prehension and the wrist orientation required for grasping an object. Three categories of neurons were found: purely motor, visually modulated, and visuomotor neurons. The discharge of purely motor neurons was not affected by either object presentation or by the visual feedback of the hand approaching to and interacting with the object. Visually modulated neurons presented a different discharge in the 2 movement conditions, this …