The dorsomedial frontal cortex: eye and forelimb fields

This review yields three conclusions: first, the eye field as described using unit recording and electrical stimulation on behaving monkeys trained to fixate visual targets is much larger than the 4 mm2 area originally described. Second, the eye field and forelimb field share a similar neural space within the dorsomedial frontal cortex (DMFC); thus the electrophysiogical studies that have been conducted on visually guided and sensory-triggered forelimb movements must be re-evaluated, since none of these studies controlled eye movement and eye position independently. Third, a topographic map representing eye position in orbit has been discovered in the DMFC; it is proposed that this topographic map records the order of positions of the eyes and forelimbs during the acquisition of visually guided movement sequences.