Motor, not visual, encoding of potential reach targets

midpoint of the targets before correcting their movements to the selected target location [4–6]. The mechanisms underlying this ubiquitous behaviour are unclear; it may reflect the simultaneous implementation of multiple competing motor plans (i.e. a motor average of competing movement paths) or the preparation of a single movement towards an averaged visual-spatial target location (i.e. a visual average of target directions). Here, we show that reaching movements toward multiple potential targets reflect the simultaneous implementation of competing action plans. Previous work has shown that multiple competing eye movement plans can be maintained in parallel in oculomotor brain structures (for example [7,8]). Our new results suggest that the same is true for the preparation of complex reaching movements. Motor, not visual, encoding of potential reach targets