FUNCTIONAL IMAGING OF HUMAN RIGHT HEMISPHERIC ACTIVATION FOR EXPLORATORY MOVEMENTS

We employed positron emission tomography to examine the functional ana tomy of the exploratory-motor aspect of spatial attention. Subjects mo ved their right hand under nonexploratory (control) versus exploratory (active) conditions. Movement architecture and eye movements were mat ched across conditions. Statistical parametric maps of the exploratory (active) minus nonexploratory (control) tasks in subjects using their right hand in the right hemispace demonstrated activation in right ci ngulate, premotor and posterior parietal areas. The net activation of multiple right hemisphere cortical areas ipsilateral to the active lim b and hemispace strongly supports the predicted, distributed network a natomy and is consistent with possible right hemispheric dominance for exploratory attentional movements.