Movement of neural activity on the superior colliculus motor map during gaze shifts

Science ◽  
1991 ◽  
Vol 251 (4999) ◽  
pp. 1358-1360 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. Munoz ◽  
D Pelisson ◽  
D Guitton
Keyword(s):  
Superior Colliculus ◽  
Neural Activity ◽  
Gaze Shifts

scholarly journals Neuromodulation of Whisking Related Neural Activity in Superior Colliculus

2014 ◽  
Vol 34 (22) ◽  
pp. 7683-7695 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. Bezdudnaya ◽  
M. A. Castro-Alamancos
Keyword(s):  
Superior Colliculus ◽  
Neural Activity

scholarly journals Role of the Primate Superior Colliculus in the Control of Head Movements

2007 ◽  
Vol 98 (4) ◽  
pp. 2022-2037 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark M. G. Walton ◽  
Bernard Bechara ◽  
Neeraj J. Gandhi
Keyword(s):  
Superior Colliculus ◽  
Firing Rate ◽  
Head Movements ◽  
Neural Basis ◽  
Average Firing Rate ◽  
Gaze Shifts ◽  
Burst Neurons ◽  
The Gaze ◽  
Head Displacement ◽  
Elevated Frequency

One important behavioral role for head movements is to assist in the redirection of gaze. However, primates also frequently make head movements that do not involve changes in the line of sight. Virtually nothing is known about the neural basis of these head-only movements. In the present study, single-unit extracellular activity was recorded from the superior colliculus while monkeys performed behavioral tasks that permit the temporal dissociation of gaze shifts and head movements. We sought to determine whether superior colliculus contains neurons that modulate their activity in association with head movements in the absence of gaze shifts and whether classic gaze-related burst neurons also discharge for head-only movements. For 26% of the neurons in our sample, significant changes in average firing rate could be attributed to head-only movements. Most of these increased their firing rate immediately prior to the onset of a head movement and continued to discharge at elevated frequency until the offset of the movement. Others discharged at a tonic rate when the head was stable and decreased their activity, or paused, during head movements. For many putative head cells, average firing rate was found to be predictive of head displacement. Some neurons exhibited significant changes in activity associated with gaze, eye-only, and head-only movements, although none of the gaze-related burst neurons significantly modulated its activity in association with head-only movements. These results suggest the possibility that the superior colliculus plays a role in the control of head movements independent of gaze shifts.

Neural Correlates of the Automatic and Goal-Driven Biases in Orienting Spatial Attention

2004 ◽  
Vol 92 (3) ◽  
pp. 1728-1737 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jillian H. Fecteau ◽  
Andrew H. Bell ◽  
Douglas P. Munoz
Keyword(s):  
Superior Colliculus ◽  
Spatial Attention ◽  
Neural Activity ◽  
Inhibition Of Return ◽  
Neural Correlates ◽  
Behavioral Pattern ◽  
Visual Object ◽  
Related Activity ◽  
Superior Colliculi ◽  
New Locations

How do stimuli in the environment interact with the goals of observers? We addressed this question by showing that the relevance of an abruptly appearing visual object (cue) changes how observers orient attention toward a subsequent object (target) and how this target is represented in the activity of neurons in the superior colliculus. Initially after the appearance of the cue, attention is driven to its locus. This capture of attention is followed by a second bias in orienting attention, where observers preferentially orient to new locations in the visual scene—an effect called inhibition of return. In the superior colliculus, these two automatic biases in orienting attention were associated with changes in neural activity linked to the appearance of the target—relatively stronger activity linked to the capture of attention and weaker activity linked to inhibition of return. This behavioral pattern changes when the cue predicts the upcoming location of the target—the benefit associated with the capture of attention is enhanced and inhibition of return is reduced. These goal-driven changes in behavior were associated with an increase in pretarget- and target-related activity. Taken together, the goals of observers modify stimulus-driven changes in neural activity with both signals represented in the salience maps of the superior colliculi.

scholarly journals Activity of Cells in the Deeper Layers of the Superior Colliculus of the Rhesus Monkey: Evidence for a Gaze Displacement Command

1997 ◽  
Vol 78 (3) ◽  
pp. 1669-1690 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edward G. Freedman ◽  
David L. Sparks
Keyword(s):  
Eye Movements ◽  
Rhesus Monkey ◽  
Superior Colliculus ◽  
Single Cells ◽  
Head Movements ◽  
Gaze Shifts ◽  
Unit Recording ◽  
The Gaze ◽  
Head Displacement ◽  
Separate Channel

Freedman, Edward G. and David L. Sparks. Activity of cells in the deeper layers of the superior colliculus of the rhesus monkey: evidence for a gaze displacement command. J. Neurophysiol. 78: 1669–1690, 1997. When the head is free to move, microstimulation of the primate superior colliculus (SC) evokes coordinated movements of the eyes and head. The similarity between these stimulation-induced movements and visually guided movements indicates that the SC of the primate is involved in redirecting the line of sight (gaze). To determine how movement commands are represented by individual collicular neurons, we recorded the activity of single cells in the deeper layers of the superior colliculus of the rhesus monkey during coordinated eye-head gaze shifts. Two alternative hypotheses were tested. The “separate channel” hypothesis states that two displacement commands are generated by the SC: one signal specifying the amplitude and direction of eye movements and a second signal specifying the amplitude and direction of head movements. Alternatively, a single gaze displacement command could be generated by the SC (“gaze displacement” hypothesis). The activity of collicular neurons was examined during three behavioral dissociations of gaze, eye, and head movement amplitude and direction (metrics). Subsets of trials were selected in which the amplitude and direction of either gaze shifts or eye movements or head movements were relatively constant but the metrics of the other two varied over wide ranges. Under these conditions, the separate channel and gaze displacement hypotheses make differential predictions about the patterns of SC activity. We tested these differential predictions by comparing observed patterns with predicted patterns of neuronal activity. We obtained data consistent with the predictions of the gaze displacement hypothesis. The predictions of the separate channel hypothesis were not confirmed. Thus microstimulation data, single-unit recording data, and behavioral data are all consistent with the gaze displacement hypothesis of collicular function—the hypothesis that a gaze displacement signal is derived from the locus of activity within the motor map of the SC and subsequently is decomposed into separate eye and head displacement signals downstream from the colliculus.

scholarly journals Effect of Reversible Inactivation of Superior Colliculus on Head Movements

2008 ◽  
Vol 99 (5) ◽  
pp. 2479-2495 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark M. G. Walton ◽  
Bernard Bechara ◽  
Neeraj J. Gandhi
Keyword(s):  
Superior Colliculus ◽  
Reaction Times ◽  
Movement Control ◽  
Head Movements ◽  
Gaze Shifts ◽  
Gaze Shift ◽  
Reversible Inactivation ◽  
The Gaze ◽  
Made In

Because of limitations in the oculomotor range, many gaze shifts must be accomplished using coordinated movements of the eyes and head. Stimulation and recording data have implicated the primate superior colliculus (SC) in the control of these gaze shifts. The precise role of this structure in head movement control, however, is not known. The present study uses reversible inactivation to gain insight into the role of this structure in the control of head movements, including those that accompany gaze shifts and those that occur in the absence of a change in gaze. Forty-five lidocaine injections were made in two monkeys that had been trained on a series of behavioral tasks that dissociate movements of the eyes and head. Reversible inactivation resulted in clear impairments in the animals’ ability to perform gaze shifts, manifested by increased reaction times, lower peak velocities, and increased durations. In contrast, comparable effects were not found for head movements (with or without gaze shifts) with the exception of a very small increase in reaction times of head movements associated with gaze shifts. Eye-head coordination was clearly affected by the injections with gaze onset occurring relatively later with respect to head onset. Following the injections, the head contributed slightly more to the gaze shift. These results suggest that head movements (with and without gaze shifts) can be controlled by pathways that do not involve SC.

Superior colliculus encodes distance to target, not saccade amplitude, in multi-step gaze shifts

2003 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 404-413 ◽  
Author(s):  
André Bergeron ◽  
Satoshi Matsuo ◽  
Daniel Guitton
Keyword(s):  
Superior Colliculus ◽  
Saccade Amplitude ◽  
Gaze Shifts

scholarly journals Superior colliculus (SC) neural activity codes visually guided head-unrestrained gaze movements in retinal coordinates

2010 ◽  
Vol 7 (9) ◽  
pp. 316-316
Author(s):  
J. DeSouza ◽  
G. Blohm ◽  
X. Yan ◽  
H. Wang ◽  
J. D. Crawford
Keyword(s):  
Superior Colliculus ◽  
Neural Activity ◽  
Visually Guided
Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document