Renzi, C. 1, 2 , Ricciardi, E. 2 , Bonino, D. 2 , Handjaras, G. 2 , Vecchi, T. 1 & Pietrini, P. 2
1 Department of Psychology, University of Pavia, Pavia, Italy
2 Laboratory of Clinical Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy
In the presence of vision, aimed motor acts can trigger remapping into peripersonal space. However, it is yet unclear how the space is coded and remapped depending on the availability of visual feedback and on the target position within the subject’s peripersonal space, and which cerebral areas subserve such processes. We used fMRI in right-handed volunteers to examine neural activity during reach-to-grasp movements with and without visual feedback and at different distances of the target (near vs far reachable space). Brain response in the superior parietal lobules (SPL), in the dorsal premotor cortex (dPM) and in the anterior part of the inferior parietal lobule (IPL) was significantly higher during visually-guided grasping towards the far targets compared to the closer ones. Moreover, IPL exhibited the opposite pattern when grasping in the absence of visual feedback. We argue that in the presence of visual feedback, a visuo-motor circuit (dPM-SPL) intervenes to remap space, possibly to support online control of movement. Conversely, IPL seems to be involved in coding/remapping peripersonal space.