The contribution of the right supra-marginal gyrus to sequence learning in eye movements

• The inferior parietal lobe plays a role in memory and learning.
• Right rSMG was active using fMRI during a sequence learning task.
• Selective de-activation of rSMG increased latency when the sequence was repeated.
• We find rSMG is vital for the release of a predictive motor plan in learning.

We investigated the role of the human right Supra-Marginal Gyrus (SMG) in the generation of learned eye movement sequences. Using MRI-guided transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) we disrupted neural activity in the SMG whilst human observers performed saccadic eye movements to multiple presentations of either predictable or random target sequences. For the predictable sequences we observed shorter saccadic latencies from the second presentation of the sequence. However, these anticipatory improvements in performance were significantly reduced when TMS was delivered to the right SMG during the inter-trial retention periods. No deficits were induced when TMS was delivered concurrently with the onset of the target visual stimuli. For the random version of the task, neither delivery of TMS to the SMG during the inter-trial period nor during the presentation of the target visual stimuli produced any deficit in performance that was significantly different from the no-TMS or control conditions. These findings demonstrate that neural activity within the right SMG is causally linked to the ability to perform short latency predictive saccades resulting from sequence learning. We conclude that neural activity in rSMG constitutes an instruction set with spatial and temporal directives that are retained and subsequently released for predictive motor planning and responses.