We present two-dimensional ( 2D ) mapping of the stellar velocity field within the inner 5″ of six nearby active galaxies , using spectra obtained with the Integral Field Unit of the GMOS instrument at the Gemini North telescope .
The sampling of the observations is 0 \aas@@fstack { \prime \prime } 2 , corresponding at the galaxies to spatial extents ranging from 10 to 30 pc .
The spatial resolution range from 20 to about 180 pc , and the observed field of view covers a few hundred parsecs around the nuclei .
The Calcium II triplet absorption features at \approx 8500Å were used to measure the stellar radial velocities and velocity dispersions .
The radial velocity fields are dominated by rotation in all galaxies .
A simple kinematical model assuming a purely rotating system with circular orbits in a plane was fitted to the radial velocity data .
The turnover of the rotation curve is at only \approx 50 pc for NGC 4051 and between 200 and 700 pc for the other 5 galaxies .
The velocity dispersion ( \sigma ) maps show the largest values ( 100 \geq \sigma \geq 150 km s ^ { -1 } ) at the centre .
In the cases of NGC 2273 and NGC 3227 , there is a decrease to \sigma \approx 70 - 80 km s ^ { -1 } at \approx 200 - 300 pc from the nucleus , delineating partial rings of low \sigma values .
A similar broken ring seems to be present at \approx 400 pc from the nucleus also in NGC 4593 .
We interpret these low \sigma rings as traces of recently formed stars that partially keep the cold kinematics of the original gas from which they have formed .
In NGC 3516 there is a decrease of \sigma outwards with the steepest gradient observed along the direction of the galaxy major axis , where \sigma reaches \approx 80 - 90 km s ^ { -1 } at \approx 400 pc from the nucleus .

The main novelty of the present work is the unprecedented spatial resolution reached by a 2D study of stellar kinematics of Seyfert galaxies using an IFU .
The few similar IFU studies available in the literature for Seyfert galaxies have a much poorer spatial resolution and/or are restricted to the study of emission line kinematics .