Effects of putamen cooling on the latency, speed and accuracy of a pointing movement in the baboon.

The functional role of the putamen, in both initiation and execution of a motor act, was investigated in 3 baboons performing a visuomotor pointing task. Reversible blockade of the putamen differentially affected the spatiotemporal components of the response. The results stress the importance of the putamen in the triggering of a goal-directed movement, but show that this structure does not seem critically involved in the control of the speed and accuracy of the movement.