Behavioral enhancement of visual responses in monkey cerebral cortex. II. Modulation in frontal eye fields specifically related to saccades

Goldberg, Michael E.; Bushnell, M. Catherine

doi:10.1152/jn.1981.46.4.773

Cited by 339 publications

(91 citation statements)

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“…As reported by other authors (Wurtz and Mohler 1976;Goldberg and Bushnell 1981), a considerable number of the visual neurons showed an enhancement of the visual response when the animal made a saccadic eye movement to a stimulus in their RFs. In Fig.…”

Section: Visual Response On Saccadesupporting

confidence: 76%

Response properties of prefrontal visual neurons in the awake monkeys.

Azuma

1985

Tohoku J. Exp. Med.

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Response properties of the visual neurons in the prearcuate and periprincipal areas of the prefrontal cortex were examined in awake monkeys. The findings obtained are as follows :(1) Most of the visual neurons responded with various excitatory fashions to a light spot presented in their visual receptive fields (RFs). The response was large when the stimulus was applied to the middle of the RF and became smaller when the stimulus position was moved from this part toward the RF border. (2) The response was affected by the size of the stimulus. The largest response was usually obtained by a small stimulus. The shape, orientation, brightness of the stimulus and the direction of its movement gave little influence on the response strength and pattern. (3) In about a half of the neurons the response was enhanced when the monkey made a saccadic eye-movement toward a visual stimulus in the RF. (4) Some of the above-mentioned response properties were quantitatively different from one another among neuron groups classified according to the eccentricity and size of their RFs. These results suggest that the properties of the neurons are suitable for detecting a visual stimulus occupying a limited extent in the space. prefrontal cortex ; visual neurons ; monkeyRecently several authors described that there were many visual neurons in the prearcuate and periprincipal areas of the monkey dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (Mohler et al. 1973;Pigarev et al. 1979;Mikami et al. 1982). Moreover, it was found that the neuronal location in the areas had a close relation to the eccentricity and the size of their visual receptive fields (RFs ; Suzuki and Azuma 1983). The neurons located in the lateral part of the areas had relatively small RFs in the central region of the visual field, while those in the medial part had large RFs in a considerably eccentric region of the contralateral visual field. Anteriorly located neurons had larger RFs than posteriorly located ones. Such systematic arrangement of the neurons in the cortical areas concerning the visual field may indicate that the areas contribute to obtaining the information of the visual space around the animal and subserve the localization of a stimulus in the space. It was expected that this suggestion was further verified by detailed investigation on the response properties of neurons in this wide areas. The purpose of the present

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Section: Visual Response On Saccadesupporting

confidence: 76%

Response properties of prefrontal visual neurons in the awake monkeys.

Azuma

1985

Tohoku J. Exp. Med.

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“…For example, single-unit recordings have shown that the FEF contains both visual and perisaccadic neurons. Visual neurons have activity that is closely linked to the onset of visual stimuli (2,(8)(9)(10), whereas perisaccadic neurons have activity that is restricted to the time immediately around the execution of saccades (2,22,23). Some measurements suggest that these cell types are discrete classes of neurons, rather than ends of a continuum (11).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Electrical microstimulation thresholds for behavioral detection and saccades in monkey frontal eye fields

Murphey

Maunsell

2008

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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The frontal eye field (FEF) is involved in the transformation of visual signals into saccadic eye movements. Although it is often considered an oculomotor structure, several lines of evidence suggest that the FEF also contributes to visual perception and attention. To better understand the range of behaviors to which the FEF can contribute, we tested whether monkeys could detect activation of their FEF by electrical microstimulation with currents below those that cause eye movements. We found that stimulation of FEF neurons could almost always be detected at levels below those needed to generate saccades and that the electrical current needed for detection was highly correlated with that needed to generate a saccade. This relationship between detection and saccade thresholds can be explained if FEF neurons represent preparation to make particular saccades and subjects can be aware of such preparations without acting on them when the representation is not strong.T he primate frontal eye field (FEF) plays a well established role in the generation of saccades. Single-unit recordings have shown that many neurons in the FEF are active around the time of saccades of specific magnitude and direction and that a topographic representation of saccade vectors exists across the FEF (1). Electrical microstimulation of sites in the FEF can produce saccades of a particular vector (2). Ablating the FEF causes pronounced deficits in generating eye movements to visual targets (3). In humans, functional MRI studies have shown activity in the FEF is correlated with visually guided saccade generation (4), and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) of the FEF has been shown to disrupt saccade generation (5, 6).Although the FEF is important in oculomotor control, several lines of evidence suggest that it plays a role that goes beyond the initiation and control of eye movements (7). The FEF receives visual inputs from the thalamus and shows extensive reciprocal connectivity with visual cortical areas (1). Single-unit recordings have shown that a substantial fraction of FEF neurons have little or no perisaccadic activity and instead have strong, short-latency visual responses (2). These visually driven neurons can respond selectivity to different stimulus dimensions (8, 9) and distinguish the behavioral relevance of stimuli in an array (10). The activity of these neurons, unlike FEF neurons with perisaccadic activity, is strongly correlated with stimulus onset and only weakly correlated with the timing of saccadic responses (11). Additionally, experiments using electrical microstimulation and TMS of the FEF have shown that FEF activation can produce effects that appear similar to spatial attention (7,(12)(13)(14)(15).To further explore the range of behaviors to which FEF activity can contribute, we have examined whether subjects can detect the activity of FEF neurons at levels that are too low to produce eye movements. Studies using electrical microstimulation of local sites in different areas of visual cortex (16) and somatosensory co...

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“…Support for the ecological hypothesis comes from the notion that the centers involved in the control of eye movements seem to be preferentially activated by stimuli located at far distances. For instance, recordings from frontal eye field neurons showed that far space has no relation to somatosensory inputs but appears instead to be strictly linked with oculomotion and, more generally, with contralateral exploratory movements (Goldberg and Bushnell, 1981;Bruce and Goldberg, 1985). Based on the physiological properties of area 8 neurons and on ablation studies showing that lesions of monkeys' frontal eye fields causes a decrease of eye movements contralateral to the lesion and a visual neglect in the far space (Rizzolatti et al, 1983;Rizzolatti et al, 1985), Rizzolatti and Gallese (1988) proposed that area 8 is involved in far space representation.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%