scholarly journals Structure, function, and connectivity fingerprints of the frontal eye field versus the inferior frontal junction: a comprehensive comparison

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marco Bedini ◽  
Daniel Baldauf
Keyword(s):  
Structure Function ◽  
Frontal Eye Field ◽  
Field Versus ◽  
Eye Field ◽  
Comprehensive Comparison ◽  
Inferior Frontal Junction

scholarly journals Functional dissociation of the inferior frontal junction from the dorsal attention network in top-down attentional control

2018 ◽  
Vol 120 (5) ◽  
pp. 2498-2512 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin J. Tamber-Rosenau ◽  
Christopher L. Asplund ◽  
René Marois
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Visuospatial Attention ◽  
Frontal Eye Field ◽  
Primary Role ◽  
Attention Network ◽  
Lateral Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Dorsal Attention Network ◽  
Eye Field ◽  
Superior Parietal Cortex ◽  
Inferior Frontal Junction

The posterior lateral prefrontal cortex—specifically, the inferior frontal junction (IFJ)—is thought to exert a key role in the control of attention. However, the precise nature of that role remains elusive. During the voluntary deployment and maintenance of visuospatial attention, the IFJ is typically coactivated with a core dorsal network consisting of the frontal eye field and superior parietal cortex. During stimulus-driven attention, IFJ instead couples with a ventrolateral network, suggesting that IFJ plays a role in attention distinct from the dorsal network. Because IFJ rapidly switches activation patterns to accommodate conditions of goal-directed and stimulus-driven attention (Asplund CL, Todd JJ, Snyder AP, Marois R. Nat Neurosci 13: 507–512, 2010), we hypothesized that IFJ’s primary role is to dynamically reconfigure attention rather than to maintain attention under steady-state conditions. This hypothesis predicts that in a goal-directed visuospatial cuing paradigm IFJ would transiently deploy attention toward the cued location, whereas the dorsal attention network would maintain attentional weights during the delay between cue and target presentation. Here we tested this hypothesis with functional magnetic resonance imaging while subjects were engaged in a Posner cuing task with variable cue-target delays. Both IFJ and dorsal network regions were involved in transient processes, but sustained activity was far more evident in the dorsal network than in IFJ. These results support the account that IFJ primarily acts to shift attention whereas the dorsal network is the main locus for the maintenance of stable attentional states. NEW & NOTEWORTHY Goal-directed visuospatial attention is controlled by a dorsal fronto-parietal network and lateral prefrontal cortex. However, the relative roles of these regions in goal-directed attention are unknown. Here we present evidence for their dissociable roles in the transient reconfiguration and sustained maintenance of attentional settings: while maintenance of attentional settings is confined to the dorsal network, the configuration of these settings at the beginning of an attentional episode is a function of lateral prefrontal cortex.

Visuomotor Transformations Are Modulated by Focused Ultrasound over Frontal Eye Field

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kaleb A. Lowe ◽  
Wolf Zinke ◽  
M. Anthony Phipps ◽  
Josh Cosman ◽  
Micala Maddox ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Focused Ultrasound ◽  
Frontal Eye Field ◽  
Visuomotor Transformations ◽  
Eye Field

scholarly journals Contribution of Ionotropic Glutamatergic Receptors to Excitability and Attentional Signals in Macaque Frontal Eye Field

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miguel Dasilva ◽  
Christian Brandt ◽  
Marc Alwin Gieselmann ◽  
Claudia Distler ◽  
Alexander Thiele
Keyword(s):  
Attentional Control ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Neuronal Excitability ◽  
Cell Types ◽  
Receptor Activation ◽  
Frontal Eye Field ◽  
Control Signals ◽  
Cognitive Operations ◽  
Eye Field ◽  
Large Scale Networks

Abstract Top-down attention, controlled by frontal cortical areas, is a key component of cognitive operations. How different neurotransmitters and neuromodulators flexibly change the cellular and network interactions with attention demands remains poorly understood. While acetylcholine and dopamine are critically involved, glutamatergic receptors have been proposed to play important roles. To understand their contribution to attentional signals, we investigated how ionotropic glutamatergic receptors in the frontal eye field (FEF) of male macaques contribute to neuronal excitability and attentional control signals in different cell types. Broad-spiking and narrow-spiking cells both required N-methyl-D-aspartic acid and α-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazolepropionic acid receptor activation for normal excitability, thereby affecting ongoing or stimulus-driven activity. However, attentional control signals were not dependent on either glutamatergic receptor type in broad- or narrow-spiking cells. A further subdivision of cell types into different functional types using cluster-analysis based on spike waveforms and spiking characteristics did not change the conclusions. This can be explained by a model where local blockade of specific ionotropic receptors is compensated by cell embedding in large-scale networks. It sets the glutamatergic system apart from the cholinergic system in FEF and demonstrates that a reduction in excitability is not sufficient to induce a reduction in attentional control signals.

Frontal eye field activity preceding aurally guided saccades

1994 ◽  
Vol 71 (3) ◽  
pp. 1250-1253 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. S. Russo ◽  
C. J. Bruce
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Location ◽  
Auditory Target ◽  
Frontal Eye Field ◽  
Visually Guided ◽  
Movement Vector ◽  
Initial Fixation ◽  
Field Activity ◽  
Eye Field ◽  
Movement Field ◽  
Visual Targets

1. We studied neuronal activity in the monkey's frontal eye field (FEF) in conjunction with saccades directed to auditory targets. 2. All FEF neurons with movement activity preceding saccades to visual targets also were active preceding saccades to auditory targets, even when such saccades were made in the dark. Movement cells generally had comparable bursts for aurally and visually guided saccades; visuomovement cells often had weaker bursts in conjunction with aurally guided saccades. 3. When these cells were tested from different initial fixation directions, movement fields associated with aurally guided saccades, like fields mapped with visual targets, were a function of saccade dimensions, and not the speaker's spatial location. Thus, even though sound location cues are chiefly craniotopic, the crucial factor for a FEF discharge before aurally guided saccades was the location of auditory target relative to the current direction of gaze. 4. Intracortical microstimulation at the sites of these cells evoked constant-vector saccades, and not goal-directed saccades. The direction and size of electrically elicited saccades generally matched the cell's movement field for aurally guided saccades. 5. Thus FEF activity appears to have a role in aurally guided as well as visually guided saccades. Moreover, visual and auditory target representations, although initially obtained in different coordinate systems, appear to converge to a common movement vector representation at the FEF stage of saccadic processing that is appropriate for transmittal to saccade-related burst neurons in the superior colliculus and pons.

Acute activation and inactivation of macaque frontal eye field with GABA-related drugs

1995 ◽  
Vol 74 (6) ◽  
pp. 2744-2748 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. C. Dias ◽  
M. Kiesau ◽  
M. A. Segraves
Keyword(s):  
Injection Site ◽  
Rhesus Monkeys ◽  
Frontal Eye Field ◽  
Surgical Removal ◽  
Gamma Aminobutyric Acid ◽  
Eye Field ◽  
Distribution Of Points ◽  
Direction Opposite ◽  
Voluntary Saccades

1. This project tests the behavioral effects of reversible activation and inactivation of sites within the frontal eye field of rhesus monkeys with microinjections of the gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA)-related drugs bicuculline and muscimol. 2. Muscimol injections impaired the monkeys' ability to make both visually and memory-guided saccades to targets at the center of the area represented by the injection site. The latencies of saccades to targets in regions flanking the injection were increased. For memory-guided saccades, saccades in the direction opposite to that represented by the injection site, were made with shorter latency than controls and often occurred before the movement cue. 3. Bicuculline injections produced irrepressible saccades equivalent to the saccade vector represented by the injection site, often in a staircase of several closely spaced movements. 4. Both substances decreased the accuracy of fixation of a central light. The distribution of points of fixation on different trials was diffuse, and the angle of gaze tended to deviate towards the side of the injection. 5. The results of these acute injections are similiar to those observed in the superior colliculus and are much more substantial than the effects observed in the long term after surgical removal of the frontal eye field. The results of this study promote a central role for the frontal eye field in the generation of all voluntary saccades and in the control of fixation.

scholarly journals Disparity Sensitivity of Frontal Eye Field Neurons

2000 ◽  
Vol 83 (1) ◽  
pp. 625-629 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefano Ferraina ◽  
Martin Paré ◽  
Robert H. Wurtz
Keyword(s):  
Eye Movements ◽  
Dimensional Space ◽  
Visual Stimuli ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Frontal Eye Field ◽  
Visual Responses ◽  
Motor Processes ◽  
Uncrossed Disparity ◽  
Eye Field ◽  
Three Dimensional Space

Information about depth is necessary to generate saccades to visual stimuli located in three-dimensional space. To determine whether monkey frontal eye field (FEF) neurons play a role in the visuo-motor processes underlying this behavior, we studied their visual responses to stimuli at different disparities. Disparity sensitivity was tested from 3° of crossed disparity (near) to 3° degrees of uncrossed disparity (far). The responses of about two thirds of FEF visual and visuo-movement neurons were sensitive to disparity and showed a broad tuning in depth for near or far disparities. Early phasic and late tonic visual responses often displayed different disparity sensitivity. These findings provide evidence of depth-related signals in FEF and suggest a role for FEF in the control of disconjugate as well as conjugate eye movements.

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