Visual input to the visuomotor mechanisms of the monkey's parietal lobe.

A newly identified class of neurons of the parietal cortex, studied in waking monkeys (Macaca mulatta), is activated by visual stimuli, perhaps via the retino-collicular visual pathway. This afferent input is thought to provide the visual cues activating the visuomotor mechanisms of the parietal lobe for the direction of visual attention.