Overlapping representations of numerical magnitude and motion direction in the posterior parietal cortex: A TMS-adaptation study

The human posterior parietal cortex (PPC) is involved in the encoding of both visual motion and numerical magnitude. In non human primates, neurons have been found in PPC that are selective for both motion direction and magnitude. Whether such neurons also exist in human PPC is not known. Here we investigated this hypothesis using state-dependent transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). Participants were adapted to a specific motion direction (either leftward or rightward), after which they performed a magnitude comparison task, with TMS applied at the onset of each trial. Our hypothesis was that neurons tuned to leftward motion may also be sensitive to small magnitudes and neurons tuned to rightward motion may also be sensitive to large magnitudes, a mapping that may have developed via spatial attentional mechanisms. Our results supported this view by showing that the effect of PPC TMS on small and large numbers depended on the motion direction being adapted, thus suggesting that there may be a functional overlap in neuronal representations of motion direction and numerical magnitude in human PPC.

Research highlights▶ PPC is involved in both number and motion processing. ▶ It is not known whether the same neurons respond to motion direction and numbers. ▶ With TMS-adaptation we show that some neurons in PPC encode both motion and numbers. ▶ There is functional neural overlap in PPC for leftward motion and small numbers. ▶ There is functional neural overlap in PPC for rightward motion and large numbers.