Object-centered spatial awareness-awareness of the location, relative
to an object, of its parts-plays an important role in many aspects of
perception, imagination, and action. One possible basis for this capab
ility is the existence in the brain of neurons with sensory receptive
fields or motor action fields that are defined relative to an object-c
entered frame. In experiments described here, neuronal activity was mo
nitored in the supplementary eye field of macaque monkeys making eye m
ovements to the right or left end of a horizontal bar, Neurons were fo
und to fire differentially as a function of the end of the bar to whic
h an eye movement was made. This is direct evidence for the existence
of neurons sensitive to the object-centered direction of movements.