The Prediction of Impact of a Looming Stimulus onto the Body Is Subserved by Multisensory Integration Mechanisms.

In the jungle, survival is highly correlated with the ability to detect and distinguish between an approaching predator and a putative prey. From an ecological perspective, a predator rapidly approaching its prey is a stronger cue for flight than a slowly moving predator. In the present study, we use functional magnetic resonance imaging in the nonhuman primate, to investigate the neural bases of the prediction of an impact to the body by a looming stimulus, i.

Gaze-informed, task-situated representation of space in primate hippocampus during virtual navigation.

To elucidate how gaze informs the construction of mental space during wayfinding in visual species like primates, we jointly examined navigation behavior, visual exploration, and hippocampal activity as macaque monkeys searched a virtual reality maze for a reward. Cells sensitive to place also responded to one or more variables like head direction, point of gaze, or task context. Many cells fired at the sight (and in anticipation) of a single landmark in a viewpoint- or task-dependent manner, simultaneously encoding the animal's logical situation within a set of actions leading to the goal.

Tactile representation of the head and shoulders assessed by fMRI in the nonhuman primate.

In nonhuman primates, tactile representation at the cortical level has mostly been studied using single-cell recordings targeted to specific cortical areas. In this study, we explored the representation of tactile information delivered to the face or the shoulders at the whole brain level, using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in the nonhuman primate. We used air puffs delivered to the center of the face, the periphery of the face, or the shoulders.

fMRI Cortical Correlates of Spontaneous Eye Blinks in the Nonhuman Primate.

Eyeblinks are defined as a rapid closing and opening of the eyelid. Three types of blinks are defined: spontaneous, reflexive, and voluntary. Here, we focus on the cortical correlates of spontaneous blinks, using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in the nonhuman primate.

Multimodal convergence within the intraparietal sulcus of the macaque monkey.

The parietal cortex is highly multimodal and plays a key role in the processing of objects and actions in space, both in human and nonhuman primates. Despite the accumulated knowledge in both species, we lack the following: (1) a general description of the multisensory convergence in this cortical region to situate sparser lesion and electrophysiological recording studies; and (2) a way to compare and extrapolate monkey data to human results. Here, we use functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in the monkey to provide a bridge between human and monkey studies.