The primate visual system includes multiple hierarchically organized cortical areas each specialized for processing distinctive areas of the visual scene. This shows that LIP is important in integrating task-relevant sensory signals flexibly. Launch We frequently encounter the task of deciding on relevant stimuli among competing distracters behaviorally. For example we would need to select a crimson target shifting rightwards at one minute but a green focus on moving leftwards an instant later. Resolving such an activity depends on neuronal representations of simple visible features such as for example color and path along with the capability to keep an eye on which features are task-relevant (Treisman and Gelade 1980 Years of work have got defined neuronal representations of visible features within a network of cortical areas specific for processing different facets from the visible scene. For instance motion is prepared in dorsal stream areas like the middle temporal (MT) and medial excellent temporal (MST) areas (Blessed and Bradley 2005 Maunsell and Truck Essen 1983 while color and type are symbolized in ventral stream areas such as for example V4 as well as the poor temporal cortex (ITC) (Desimone et al. 1985 Zeki 1976 One interesting theory posits that feature-based selective interest allows visible feature representations in visible cortex to become flexibly read aloud by downstream areas (Treisman and Gelade 1980 Nevertheless the root neuronal systems which enable such versatile feature integration stay unknown. While very much previous work provides centered on the lateral intraparietal area’s (LIP) function in visuo-spatial MLN4924 features (e.g. spatial interest saccadic eye actions) (Bisley and Goldberg 2003 Gnadt and Andersen 1988 Goldberg et al. 1990 we hypothesize that feature-based interest allows LIP neurons to integrate MLN4924 multiple visual feature representations from upstream areas flexibly. LIP is certainly interconnected with both dorsal and ventral stream visible areas (Felleman and Truck Essen 1991 Lewis and Truck Essen 2000 and will encode visible features such as for example path (Fanini and Assad 2009 color (Toth and Assad 2002 and type (Fitzgerald et al. 2011 Sereno and Maunsell 1998 particularly if stimuli are task-relevant MLN4924 (Assad 2003 Oristaglio et al. 2006 LIP can be interconnected with regions of the prefrontal cortex (PFC) (Cavada and Goldman-Rakic 1989 which includes been connected with professional functions as well as the voluntary control of interest (Armstrong et al. 2009 Funahashi et al. 1989 Ibos et al. 2013 Cohen and Miller 2001 Miller et al. 1996 Furthermore LIP activity can reveal extra-retinal and/or cognitive elements such as for example types (Freedman and Assad 2006 Swaminathan and Freedman 2012 job guidelines (Stoet and Snyder 2004 and salience (Gottlieb et al. 1998 Leathers and Olson 2012 Because LIP participates both in sensory and cognitive features hence it is well located to flexibly integrate different visible and cognitive inputs. That is additional supported by latest work displaying that LIP neurons can separately encode or multiplex both sensory-motor and cognitive indicators (Meister et al. 2013 Rishel et al. 2013 Within this scholarly research we tested MLN4924 the hypothesis that LIP integrates task-relevant visual feature representations. We utilized a visible matching task where monkeys utilized two visible features (color and movement path) to recognize focus on (i.e. match) stimuli. 1 of 2 test stimuli was accompanied by a succession BPES1 of check stimuli. Monkeys had to point if the check stimuli matched the test both in path and color. As the identity from the test stimulus varied across studies the task-relevant path and color also varied from trial-to-trial. This allowed us to find out how color and path selectivity in LIP mixed based on which features had been task relevant. Neuronal recordings revealed significant direction and color selectivity in LIP. Oddly enough many LIP neurons demonstrated task-dependent shifts within their path and/or color tuning with most neurons displaying shifts toward the path and/or color which was task-relevant. This implies that visible feature representations in LIP are versatile on brief time-scales which LIP integrates multiple task-relevant visible features. Our observations furthermore.