Eye and head movements evoked by electrical stimulation of monkey superior colliculus

1975 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
MichaelP. Stryker ◽  
PeterH. Schiller
Keyword(s):  
Electrical Stimulation ◽  
Superior Colliculus ◽  
Head Movements ◽  
Stimulation Of

Neck Muscle Responses to Stimulation of Monkey Superior Colliculus. II. Gaze Shift Initiation and Volitional Head Movements

2002 ◽  
Vol 88 (4) ◽  
pp. 2000-2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian D. Corneil ◽  
Etienne Olivier ◽  
Douglas P. Munoz
Keyword(s):  
Superior Colliculus ◽  
Neck Muscles ◽  
Head Movements ◽  
Emg Activity ◽  
Neck Muscle ◽  
Gaze Shift ◽  
Antagonist Muscles ◽  
Agonist And Antagonist ◽  
Agonist And Antagonist Muscles ◽  
Stimulation Of

We report neck muscle activity and head movements evoked by electrical stimulation of the superior colliculus (SC) in head-unrestrained monkeys. Recording neck electromyography (EMG) circumvents complications arising from the head's inertia and the kinetics of muscle force generation and allows precise assessment of the neuromuscular drive to the head plant. This study served two main purposes. First, we sought to test the predictions made in the companion paper of a parallel drive from the SC onto neck muscles. Low-current, long-duration stimulation evoked both neck EMG responses and head movements either without or prior to gaze shifts, testifying to a SC drive to neck muscles that is independent of gaze-shift initiation. However, gaze-shift initiation was linked to a transient additional EMG response and head acceleration, confirming the presence of a SC drive to neck muscles that is dependent on gaze-shift initiation. We forward a conceptual neural architecture and suggest that this parallel drive provides the oculomotor system with the flexibility to orient the eyes and head independently or together, depending on the behavioral context. Second, we compared the EMG responses evoked by SC stimulation to those that accompanied volitional head movements. We found characteristic features in the underlying pattern of evoked neck EMG that were not observed during volitional head movements in spite of the seemingly natural kinematics of evoked head movements. These features included reciprocal patterning of EMG activity on the agonist and antagonist muscles during stimulation, a poststimulation increase in the activity of antagonist muscles, and synchronously evoked responses on agonist and antagonist muscles regardless of initial horizontal head position. These results demonstrate that the electrically evoked SC drive to the head cannot be considered as a neural replicate of the SC drive during volitional head movements and place important new constraints on the interpretation of electrically evoked head movements.

scholarly journals Electrical Stimulation of the Frontal Eye Field in a Monkey Produces Combined Eye and Head Movements

2000 ◽  
Vol 84 (2) ◽  
pp. 1103-1106 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tyson A. Tu ◽  
E. Gregory Keating
Keyword(s):  
Electrical Stimulation ◽  
Eye Movements ◽  
Head Movements ◽  
Frontal Eye Field ◽  
Gaze Shifts ◽  
Gaze Shift ◽  
Eye Field ◽  
A Site ◽  
Head Rotations ◽  
Stimulation Of

The frontal eye field (FEF), an area in the primate frontal lobe, has long been considered important for the production of eye movements. Past studies have evoked saccade-like movements from the FEF using electrical stimulation in animals that were not allowed to move their heads. Using electrical stimulation in two monkeys that were free to move their heads, we have found that the FEF produces gaze shifts that are composed of both eye and head movements. Repeated stimulation at a site evoked gaze shifts of roughly constant amplitude. However, that gaze shift could be accomplished with varied amounts of head and eye movements, depending on their (head and eye) respective starting positions. This evidence suggests that the FEF controls visually orienting movements using both eye and head rotations rather than just shifting the eyes as previously thought.

New Mechanism That Accounts for Position Sensitivity of Saccades Evoked in Response to Stimulation of Superior Colliculus

1998 ◽  
Vol 80 (6) ◽  
pp. 3373-3379 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. K. Moschovakis ◽  
Y. Dalezios ◽  
J. Petit ◽  
A. A. Grantyn
Keyword(s):  
Electrical Stimulation ◽  
Eye Movements ◽  
Superior Colliculus ◽  
Short Duration ◽  
High Frequency ◽  
Initial Position ◽  
Characteristic Vector ◽  
Extraocular Motoneurons ◽  
Position Sensitivity ◽  
Stimulation Of

Moschovakis, A. K., Y. Dalezios, J. Petit, and A. A. Grantyn. New mechanism that accounts for position sensitivity of saccades evoked in response to stimulation of superior colliculus. J. Neurophysiol. 80: 3373–3379, 1998. Electrical stimulation of the feline superior colliculus (SC) is known to evoke saccades whose size depends on the site stimulated (the “characteristic vector” of evoked saccades) and the initial position of the eyes. Similar stimuli were recently shown to produce slow drifts that are presumably caused by relatively direct projections of the SC onto extraocular motoneurons. Both slow and fast evoked eye movements are similarly affected by the initial position of the eyes, despite their dissimilar metrics, kinematics, and anatomic substrates. We tested the hypothesis that the position sensitivity of evoked saccades is due to the superposition of largely position-invariant saccades and position-dependent slow drifts. We show that such a mechanism can account for the fact that the position sensitivity of evoked saccades increases together with the size of their characteristic vector. Consistent with it, the position sensitivity of saccades drops considerably when the contribution of slow drifts is minimal as, for example, when there is no overlap between evoked saccades and short-duration trains of high-frequency stimuli.

Suppression of Visually and Memory-Guided Saccades Induced by Electrical Stimulation of the Monkey Frontal Eye Field. II. Suppression of Bilateral Saccades

2004 ◽  
Vol 92 (4) ◽  
pp. 2261-2273 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yoshiko Izawa ◽  
Hisao Suzuki ◽  
Yoshikazu Shinoda
Keyword(s):  
Electrical Stimulation ◽  
Superior Colliculus ◽  
Reticular Formation ◽  
Neural Mechanism ◽  
Frontal Eye Field ◽  
Pontine Reticular Formation ◽  
Visually Guided ◽  
Saccade Onset ◽  
Eye Field ◽  
Stimulation Of

To understand the neural mechanism of fixation, we investigated effects of electrical stimulation of the frontal eye field (FEF) and its vicinity on visually guided (Vsacs) and memory-guided saccades (Msacs) in trained monkeys and found that there were two types of suppression induced by the electrical stimulation: suppression of ipsilateral saccades and suppression of bilateral saccades. In this report, we characterized the properties of the suppression of bilateral Vsacs and Msacs. Stimulation of the bilateral suppression sites suppressed the initiation of both Vsacs and Msacs in all directions during and ∼50 ms after stimulation but did not affect the vector of these saccades. The suppression was stronger for ipsiversive larger saccades and contraversive smaller saccades, and saccades with initial eye positions shifted more in the saccadic direction. The most effective stimulation timing for the suppression of ipsilateral and contralateral Vsacs was ∼40–50 ms before saccade onset, indicating that the suppression occurred most likely in the superior colliculus and/or the paramedian pontine reticular formation. Suppression sites of bilateral saccades were located in the prearcuate gyrus facing the inferior arcuate sulcus where stimulation induced suppression at ≤40 μA but usually did not evoke any saccades at 80 μA and were different from those of ipsilateral saccades where stimulation evoked saccades at ≤50 μA. The bilateral suppression sites contained fixation neurons. The results suggest that fixation neurons in the bilateral suppression area of the FEF may play roles in maintaining fixation by suppressing saccades in all directions.

scholarly journals Frontal Eye Field Neurons Orthodromically Activated From the Superior Colliculus

1998 ◽  
Vol 80 (6) ◽  
pp. 3331-3335 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marc A. Sommer ◽  
Robert H. Wurtz
Keyword(s):  
Electrical Stimulation ◽  
Superior Colliculus ◽  
Direct Evidence ◽  
Visual Stimulation ◽  
Saccadic Eye Movements ◽  
Frontal Eye Field ◽  
Anatomical Studies ◽  
Eye Field ◽  
To Receive ◽  
Stimulation Of

Sommer, Marc A. and Robert H. Wurtz. Frontal eye field neurons orthodromically activated from the superior colliculus. J. Neurophysiol. 80: 3331–3333, 1998. Anatomical studies have shown that the frontal eye field (FEF) and superior colliculus (SC) of monkeys are reciprocally connected, and a physiological study described the signals sent from the FEF to the SC. Nothing is known, however, about the signals sent from the SC to the FEF. We physiologically identified and characterized FEF neurons that are likely to receive input from the SC. Fifty-two FEF neurons were found that were orthodromically activated by electrical stimulation of the intermediate or deeper layers of the SC. All the neurons that we tested ( n = 34) discharged in response to visual stimulation. One-half also discharged when saccadic eye movements were made. This provides the first direct evidence that the ascending pathway from SC to FEF might carry visual- and saccade-related signals. Our findings support a hypothesis that the SC and the FEF interact bidirectionally during the events leading up to saccade generation.

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