2001). (4) We went to great lengths to identify and exclude FEF activation. Aside from stressing the importance to fixate on the fixation cross in order to reduce eye movements to a minimum, we conducted a prescreening that allowed us to select participants exhibiting the least visually guided saccades during MOT and LUM. Additionally, we functionally located participants’ FEF by recording brain activation during saccade execution (FEF-L). FEF-L was later applied Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical as an exclusive mask to the MC. Results overview Activations in the lateral PR-957 mouse frontal cortex Corresponding to our hypothesis, the MC revealed bilateral frontal activation in BA6 comprising the precentral gyri and the precentral sulci, as well

as left superior frontal gyrus (possibly merging into BA8), with the following cluster maxima (MNI, x/y/z): −15/−10/67 and 21/−10/61 (also see Table ​Table11 and Fig. ​Fig.2).2). As a rule of thumb, the threshold between the dorsal and the ventral PM Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical lies in the range of z-coordinates 48–51 in Talairach space (Schubotz and von Cramon 2003; Tomassini et al. Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical 2007), corresponding to approximately z = 43 to 46 in MNI space. Thus, we propose that this activation represents the involvement of premotor areas, namely the PMd. Noteworthy, further activations were found bilaterally in BA44 (pars opercularis

of the IFG) with the following cluster maxima: 51/5/31 and −51/5/25 (also see Table ​Table11 and Fig. ​Fig.2).2). Even though these results did not reach the significance level of PFDR-corrected < 0.001, these activations are of most interest to the current study,

as we take them to reflect PMv involvement. Below, we will discuss these assumptions and speculate on the implications Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical of our interpretations. Activations in the temporal and parietal cortices The MC revealed an extended activation cluster with local maxima in the superior and middle temporal gyri (bilateral), the right middle occipital Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical gyrus, and the right supramarginal gyrus. This cluster spreads bilaterally through large parts of the parietal cortex (comprising the superior and inferior parietal lobules) and the occipital cortex (Table ​(Table11). Similar parietal activations were found in previous studies (Culham et al. 1998, 2001; Jovicich et al. 2001; Howe et al. 2009). This area is generally associated with processes of spatial attention, for instance, governing attention shifts toward salient sensory input (Goodale and Milner 1992; Adenylyl cyclase Cabeza et al. 2008, 2011; Hutchinson et al. 2009; Sack 2009). The parietal cortex also comprises the parietal eye fields that are crucially involved in the execution of “reflexive” saccades toward salient objects in a visual scene (Rushworth et al. 2003; Pierrot-Deseilligny et al. 2004). Furthermore, the inferior parietal lobule, together with the IFG, has been associated with the embodiment of observed actions (Cross et al. 2009).