scholarly journals Neural correlates of goal-directed and non-goal-directed movements

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Naveen Sendhilnathan ◽  
Debaleena Basu ◽  
Michael E. Goldberg ◽  
Jeffrey D. Schall ◽  
Aditya Murthy
Keyword(s):  
Neural Activity ◽  
Neural Correlates ◽  
Spike Rate ◽  
Voluntary Control ◽  
Frontal Eye Field ◽  
Beta Band ◽  
Band Power ◽  
Eye Field

AbstractWhat are the neural correlates that distinguish goal-directed (G) from non-goal-directed movements (nG)? We investigated this question in the monkey frontal eye field, which is implicated in voluntary control of saccades. We found that only for G-saccades, the variability in spike rate across trials decreased, the regularity of spike timings within trials increased, the neural activity increased earlier from baseline and had a concurrent reduction of LFP beta band power.

scholarly journals Neural correlates of goal-directed and non–goal-directed movements

2021 ◽  
Vol 118 (6) ◽  
pp. e2006372118
Author(s):  
Naveen Sendhilnathan ◽  
Debaleena Basu ◽  
Michael E. Goldberg ◽  
Jeffrey D. Schall ◽  
Aditya Murthy
Keyword(s):  
Brain Area ◽  
Field Potential ◽  
Neural Correlates ◽  
Voluntary Control ◽  
Frontal Eye Field ◽  
Beta Band ◽  
Saccade Onset ◽  
Eye Field ◽  
Saccade Direction ◽  
The Brain

What are the cortical neural correlates that distinguish goal-directed and non–goal-directed movements? We investigated this question in the monkey frontal eye field (FEF), which is implicated in voluntary control of saccades. Here, we compared FEF activity associated with goal-directed (G) saccades and non–goal-directed (nG) saccades made by the monkey. Although the FEF neurons discharged before these nG saccades, there were three major differences in the neural activity: First, the variability in spike rate across trials decreased only for G saccades. Second, the local field potential beta-band power decreased during G saccades but did not change during nG saccades. Third, the time from saccade direction selection to the saccade onset was significantly longer for G saccades compared with nG saccades. Overall, our results reveal unexpected differences in neural signatures for G versus nG saccades in a brain area that has been implicated selectively in voluntary control. Taken together, these data add critical constraints to the way we think about saccade generation in the brain.

scholarly journals Neural Correlates of Correct and Errant Attentional Selection Revealed Through N2pc and Frontal Eye Field Activity

2010 ◽  
Vol 104 (5) ◽  
pp. 2433-2441 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard P. Heitz ◽  
Jeremiah Y. Cohen ◽  
Geoffrey F. Woodman ◽  
Jeffrey D. Schall
Keyword(s):  
Visual Search ◽  
Visual Processing ◽  
Neural Correlates ◽  
Event Related Potential ◽  
Covert Attention ◽  
Extrastriate Cortex ◽  
False Alarms ◽  
Frontal Eye Field ◽  
Physiological Basis ◽  
Eye Field

The goal of this study was to obtain a better understanding of the physiological basis of errors of visual search. Previous research has shown that search errors occur when visual neurons in the frontal eye field (FEF) treat distractors as if they were targets. We replicated this finding during an inefficient form search and extended it by measuring simultaneously a macaque homologue of an event-related potential indexing the allocation of covert attention known as the m-N2pc. Based on recent work, we expected errors of selection in FEF to propagate to areas of extrastriate cortex responsible for allocating attention and implicated in the generation of the m-N2pc. Consistent with this prediction, we discovered that when FEF neurons selected a distractor instead of the search target, the m-N2pc shifted in the same, incorrect direction prior to the erroneous saccade. This suggests that such errors are due to a systematic misorienting of attention from the initial stages of visual processing. Our analyses also revealed distinct neural correlates of false alarms and guesses. These results demonstrate that errant gaze shifts during visual search arise from errant attentional processing.

scholarly journals Role of expected reward in frontal eye field during natural scene search

2016 ◽  
Vol 116 (2) ◽  
pp. 645-657 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joshua I. Glaser ◽  
Daniel K. Wood ◽  
Patrick N. Lawlor ◽  
Pavan Ramkumar ◽  
Konrad P. Kording ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Eye Movements ◽  
Neural Activity ◽  
Search Task ◽  
Behavioral Changes ◽  
Frontal Eye Field ◽  
Natural Scene ◽  
Firing Rates ◽  
Eye Field ◽  
Movement Representation

When a saccade is expected to result in a reward, both neural activity in oculomotor areas and the saccade itself (e.g., its vigor and latency) are altered (compared with when no reward is expected). As such, it is unclear whether the correlations of neural activity with reward indicate a representation of reward beyond a movement representation; the modulated neural activity may simply represent the differences in motor output due to expected reward. Here, to distinguish between these possibilities, we trained monkeys to perform a natural scene search task while we recorded from the frontal eye field (FEF). Indeed, when reward was expected (i.e., saccades to the target), FEF neurons showed enhanced responses. Moreover, when monkeys accidentally made eye movements to the target, firing rates were lower than when they purposively moved to the target. Thus, neurons were modulated by expected reward rather than simply the presence of the target. We then fit a model that simultaneously included components related to expected reward and saccade parameters. While expected reward led to shorter latency and higher velocity saccades, these behavioral changes could not fully explain the increased FEF firing rates. Thus, FEF neurons appear to encode motivational factors such as reward expectation, above and beyond the kinematic and behavioral consequences of imminent reward.

Neural correlates of changing intention in the human FEF and IPS

2012 ◽  
Vol 107 (3) ◽  
pp. 859-867 ◽  
Author(s):  
Duncan E. Astle ◽  
Elena Nixon ◽  
Stephen R. Jackson ◽  
Georgina M. Jackson
Keyword(s):  
Event Related Potentials ◽  
Neural Correlates ◽  
Smooth Transition ◽  
Frontal Eye Field ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Mental Flexibility ◽  
Related Potentials ◽  
Eye Field ◽  
The Right ◽  
Prior Intention

Previous research demonstrates that our apparent mental flexibility depends largely on the strength of our prior intention; changing our intention in advance enables a smooth transition from one task to another (e.g., Astle DE, Jackson GM, Swainson R. J Cogn Neurosci 20: 255–267, 2008; Duncan J, Emslie H, Williams P, Johnson R, Freer C. Cogn Psychol 30: 257–303, 1996; Husain M, Parton A, Hodgson TL, Mort D, Rees G. Nat Neurosci 6: 117–118, 2003). However, these necessarily rapid anticipatory mechanisms have been difficult to study in the human brain. We used EEG and magnetoencephalography, specifically event-related potentials and fields (ERPs and ERFs), respectively, to explore the neural correlates of this important aspect of mental flexibility. Subjects performed a manual version of a pro/antisaccade task using preparatory cues to switch between the pro- and antirules. When subjects switched their intention, we observed a positivity over central electrodes, which correlated significantly with our behavioral data; the greater the ERP effect, the stronger the subject's change of intention. ERFs, alongside subject-specific structural MRIs, were used to project into source space. When subjects switched their intention, they showed significantly elevated activity in the right frontal eye field and left intraparietal sulcus (IPS); the greater the left IPS activity on switch trials, the stronger the subject's change of intention. This network has previously been implicated in the top-down control of eye movements, but here we demonstrate its role in the top-down control of a task set, in particular, that it is recruited when we change the task that we intend to perform.

scholarly journals Neural correlates of divided orienting in frontal eye field in a search-step task

2010 ◽  
Vol 2 (7) ◽  
pp. 160-160
Author(s):  
S.M. Shorter-Jacobi ◽  
A. Murthy ◽  
K.G. Thompson ◽  
J.D. Schall
Keyword(s):  
Neural Correlates ◽  
Frontal Eye Field ◽  
Eye Field

scholarly journals Incomplete Suppression of Distractor-Related Activity in the Frontal Eye Field Results in Curved Saccades

2006 ◽  
Vol 96 (5) ◽  
pp. 2699-2711 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert M. McPeek
Keyword(s):  
Target Location ◽  
Temporal Structure ◽  
Target Selection ◽  
Neural Correlates ◽  
Frontal Eye Field ◽  
Stimulation Site ◽  
Related Activity ◽  
Distractor Location ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Eye Field

Saccades in the presence of distractors show significant trajectory curvature. Based on previous work in the superior colliculus (SC), we speculated that curvature arises when a movement is initiated before competition between the target and distractor goals has been fully resolved. To test this hypothesis, we recorded frontal eye field (FEF) activity for curved and straight saccades in search. In contrast to the SC, activity in FEF is normally poorly correlated with saccade dynamics. However, the FEF, like the SC, is involved in target selection. Thus if curvature is caused by incomplete target selection, we expect to see its neural correlates in the FEF. We found that saccades that curve toward a distractor are accompanied by an increase in perisaccadic activity of FEF neurons coding the distractor location, and saccades that curve away are accompanied by a decrease in activity. In contrast, for FEF neurons coding the target location, there is no significant difference in activity between curved and straight saccades. To establish that the distractor-related activity is causally related to saccade curvature, we applied microstimulation to sites in the FEF before saccades to targets presented without distractors. The stimulation was subthreshold for evoking saccades and the temporal structure of the stimulation train resembled the activity recorded for curved saccades. The resulting movements curved toward the location coded by the stimulation site. These results support the idea that saccade curvature results from incomplete suppression of distractor-related activity during target selection.

scholarly journals FRONTAL EYE FIELD INACTIVATION DIMINISHES SUPERIOR COLLICULUS ACTIVITY, BUT DELAYED SACCADIC ACCUMULATION GOVERNS REACTION TIME INCREASES

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tyler R. Peel ◽  
Suryadeep Dash ◽  
Stephen G. Lomber ◽  
Brian D. Corneil
Keyword(s):  
Reaction Time ◽  
Superior Colliculus ◽  
Neural Activity ◽  
Accumulation Rate ◽  
Frontal Eye Field ◽  
Frontal Eye Fields ◽  
Relevant Parameter ◽  
Intermediate Layers ◽  
Eye Field ◽  
Accumulator Models

AbstractStochastic accumulator models provide a comprehensive framework for how neural activity could produce behavior. Neural activity within the frontal eye fields (FEF) and intermediate layers of the superior colliculus (iSC) support such models for saccade initiation, by relating variations in saccade reaction time (SRT) to variations in parameters such as baseline, rate of accumulation of activity, or threshold. Here, by recording iSC activity during reversible cryogenic inactivation of the FEF in non-human primates, we causally test which parameter(s) best explains concomitant increases in SRT. While FEF inactivation decreased all aspects of ipsilesional iSC activity, decreases in accumulation rate and threshold poorly predicted accompanying increases in SRT. Instead, SRT increases best correlated with delays in the onset of saccade-related accumulation. We conclude that FEF signals govern the onset of saccade-related accumulation within the iSC, and that the onset of accumulation is a relevant parameter for stochastic accumulation models of saccade initiation.Significance StatementThe superior colliculus (SC) and frontal eye fields (FEF) are two of the best-studied areas in the primate brain. Surprisingly, little is known about what happens in the SC when the FEF is temporarily inactivated. Here, we show that temporary FEF inactivation decreases all aspects of functionally-related activity in the SC. This combination of techniques also allowed us to relate changes in SC activity to concomitant increases in saccadic reaction time (SRT). Although stochastic accumulator models relate SRT increases to reduced rates of accumulation or increases in threshold, such changes were not observed in the SC. Instead, FEF inactivation delayed the onset of saccade-related accumulation, emphasizing the importance of this parameter in biologically-plausible models of saccade initiation.

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