scholarly journals Responses of Neurons in Lateral Intraparietal Area Depend on Stimulus-Associated Reward During Binocular Flash Suppression

2019 ◽  
Vol 13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hamed Bahmani ◽  
Qinglin Li ◽  
Nikos K. Logothetis ◽  
Georgios A. Keliris
Keyword(s):  
Lateral Intraparietal Area

Motor intention activity in the macaque's lateral intraparietal area. I. Dissociation of motor plan from sensory memory

1996 ◽  
Vol 76 (3) ◽  
pp. 1439-1456 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. Mazzoni ◽  
R. M. Bracewell ◽  
S. Barash ◽  
R. A. Andersen
Keyword(s):  
Eye Movements ◽  
Visual Stimulus ◽  
Visual Stimuli ◽  
Saccadic Eye Movements ◽  
Stimulus Location ◽  
Sensory Memory ◽  
Lateral Intraparietal Area ◽  
Preferred Direction ◽  
Motor Plan ◽  
Stimulation Of

1. The lateral intraparietal area (area LIP) of the monkey's posterior parietal cortex (PPC) contains neurons that are active during saccadic eye movements. These neurons' activity includes visual and saccade-related components. These responses are spatially tuned and the location of a neuron's visual receptive field (RF) relative to the fovea generally overlaps its preferred saccade amplitude and direction (i.e., its motor field, MF). When a delay is imposed between the presentation of a visual stimulus and a saccade made to its location (memory saccade task), many LIP neurons maintain elevated activity during the delay (memory activity, M), which appears to encode the metrics of the next intended saccadic eye movements. Recent studies have alternatively suggested that LIP neurons encode the locations of visual stimuli regardless of where the animal intends to look. We examined whether the M activity of LIP neurons specifically encodes movement intention or the locations of recent visual stimuli, or a combination of both. In the accompanying study, we investigated whether the intended-movement activity reflects changes in motor plan. 2. We trained monkeys (Macaca mulatta) to memorize the locations of two visual stimuli and plan a sequence of two saccades, one to each remembered target, as we recorded the activity of single LIP neurons. Two targets were flashed briefly while the monkey maintained fixation; after a delay the fixation point was extinguished, and the monkey made two saccades in sequence to each target's remembered location, in the order in which the targets were presented. This "delayed double saccade" (DDS) paradigm allowed us to dissociate the location of visual stimulation from the direction of the planned saccade and thus distinguish neuronal activity related to the target's location from activity related to the saccade plan. By imposing a delay, we eliminated the confounding effect of any phasic responses coincident with the appearance of the stimulus and with the saccade. 3. We arranged the two visual stimuli so that in one set of conditions at least the first one was in the neuron's visual RF, and thus the first saccade was in the neuron's motor field (MF). M activity should be high in these conditions according to both the sensory memory and motor plan hypotheses. In another set of conditions, the second stimulus appeared in the RF but the first one was presented outside the RF, instructing the monkey to plan the first saccade away from the neuron's MF. If the M activity encodes the motor plan, it should be low in these conditions, reflecting the plan for the first saccade (away from the MF). If it is a sensory trace of the stimulus' location, it should be high, reflecting stimulation of the RF by the second target. 4. We tested 49 LIP neurons (in 3 hemispheres of 2 monkeys) with M activity on the DDS task. Of these, 38 (77%) had M activity related to the next intended saccade. They were active in the delay period, as expected, if the first saccade was in their preferred direction. They were less active or silent if the next saccade was not in their preferred direction, even when the second stimulus appeared in their RF. 5. The M activity of 8 (16%) of the remaining neurons specifically encoded the location of the most recent visual stimulus. Their firing rate during the delay reflected stimulation of the RF independently of the saccade being planned. The remaining 3 neurons had M activity that did not consistently encode either the next saccade or the stimulus' location. 6. We also recorded the activity of a subset of neurons (n = 38) in a condition in which no stimulus appeared in a neuron's RF, but the second saccade was in the neuron's MF. In this case the majority of neurons tested (23/38, 60%) became active in the period between the first and second saccade, even if neither stimulus had appeared in their RF. Moreover, this activity appeared only after the first saccade had started in all but two of

scholarly journals A spatial memory signal shows that the parietal cortex has access to a craniotopic representation of space

eLife ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mulugeta Semework ◽  
Sara C Steenrod ◽  
Michael E Goldberg
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Memory ◽  
Parietal Cortex ◽  
Receptive Fields ◽  
Spatial Location ◽  
Visual Response ◽  
Lateral Intraparietal Area ◽  
Memory Response ◽  
Representation Of Space ◽  
Present Trial

Humans effortlessly establish a gist-like memory of their environment whenever they enter a new place, a memory that can guide action even in the absence of vision. Neurons in the lateral intraparietal area (LIP) of the monkey exhibit a form of this environmental memory. These neurons respond when a monkey makes a saccade that brings the spatial location of a stimulus that appeared on a number of prior trials, but not on the present trial, into their receptive fields (RFs). The stimulus need never have appeared in the neuron’s RF. This memory response is usually weaker, with a longer latency than the neuron’s visual response. We suggest that these results demonstrate that LIP has access to a supraretinal memory of space, which is activated when the spatial location of the vanished stimulus can be described by a retinotopic vector from the center of gaze to the remembered spatial location.

scholarly journals Frontal eye field microstimulation induces task-dependent gamma oscillations in the lateral intraparietal area

2012 ◽  
Vol 108 (5) ◽  
pp. 1392-1402 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elsie Premereur ◽  
Wim Vanduffel ◽  
Pieter R. Roelfsema ◽  
Peter Janssen
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Attention ◽  
Field Potential ◽  
Gamma Oscillations ◽  
Oculomotor Control ◽  
Saccade Target ◽  
Frontal Eye Field ◽  
Alpha Power ◽  
Lateral Intraparietal Area ◽  
Electrical Microstimulation ◽  
Gamma Power

Macaque frontal eye fields (FEF) and the lateral intraparietal area (LIP) are high-level oculomotor control centers that have been implicated in the allocation of spatial attention. Electrical microstimulation of macaque FEF elicits functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) activations in area LIP, but no study has yet investigated the effect of FEF microstimulation on LIP at the single-cell or local field potential (LFP) level. We recorded spiking and LFP activity in area LIP during weak, subthreshold microstimulation of the FEF in a delayed-saccade task. FEF microstimulation caused a highly time- and frequency-specific, task-dependent increase in gamma power in retinotopically corresponding sites in LIP: FEF microstimulation produced a significant increase in LIP gamma power when a saccade target appeared and remained present in the LIP receptive field (RF), whereas less specific increases in alpha power were evoked by FEF microstimulation for saccades directed away from the RF. Stimulating FEF with weak currents had no effect on LIP spike rates or on the gamma power during memory saccades or passive fixation. These results provide the first evidence for task-dependent modulations of LFPs in LIP caused by top-down stimulation of FEF. Since the allocation and disengagement of spatial attention in visual cortex have been associated with increases in gamma and alpha power, respectively, the effects of FEF microstimulation on LIP are consistent with the known effects of spatial attention.

scholarly journals Change in Motor Plan, Without a Change in the Spatial Locus of Attention, Modulates Activity in Posterior Parietal Cortex

1998 ◽  
Vol 79 (5) ◽  
pp. 2814-2819 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lawrence H. Snyder ◽  
Aaron P. Batista ◽  
Richard A. Andersen
Keyword(s):  
Parietal Cortex ◽  
Posterior Parietal Cortex ◽  
Macaque Monkey ◽  
Case Control ◽  
Visually Guided ◽  
Lateral Intraparietal Area ◽  
Central Target ◽  
Motor Plan ◽  
Motor Intention ◽  
Posterior Parietal

Snyder, Lawrence H., Aaron P. Batista, and Richard A. Andersen. Change in motor plan, without a change in the spatial locus of attention, modulates activity in posterior parietal cortex. J. Neurophysiol. 79: 2814–2819, 1998. The lateral intraparietal area (LIP) of macaque monkey, and a parietal reach region (PRR) medial and posterior to LIP, code the intention to make visually guided eye and arm movements, respectively. We studied the effect of changing the motor plan, without changing the locus of attention, on single neurons in these two areas. A central target was fixated while one or two sequential flashes occurred in the periphery. The first appeared either within the response field of the neuron being recorded or else on the opposite side of the fixation point. Animals planned a saccade (red flash) or reach (green flash) to the flash location. In some trials, a second flash 750 ms later could change the motor plan but never shifted attention: second flashes always occurred at the same location as the preceding first flash. Responses in LIP were larger when a saccade was instructed ( n = 20 cells), whereas responses in PRR were larger when a reach was instructed ( n = 17). This motor preference was observed for both first flashes and second flashes. In addition, the response to a second flash depended on whether it affirmed or countermanded the first flash; second flash responses were diminished only in the former case. Control experiments indicated that this differential effect was not due to stimulus novelty. These findings support a role for posterior parietal cortex in coding specific motor intention and are consistent with a possible role in the nonspatial shifting of motor intention.

scholarly journals Object comparison in the lateral intraparietal area

2017 ◽  
Vol 118 (4) ◽  
pp. 2458-2469 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wei Song Ong ◽  
Koorosh Mirpour ◽  
James W. Bisley
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Object Recognition ◽  
Visual Information ◽  
Posterior Parietal Cortex ◽  
Ventral Stream ◽  
Object Identity ◽  
Stimulus Similarity ◽  
Lateral Intraparietal Area ◽  
Dynamic Representation ◽  
And Task

We can search for and locate specific objects in our environment by looking for objects with similar features. Object recognition involves stimulus similarity responses in ventral visual areas and task-related responses in prefrontal cortex. We tested whether neurons in the lateral intraparietal area (LIP) of posterior parietal cortex could form an intermediary representation, collating information from object-specific similarity map representations to allow general decisions about whether a stimulus matches the object being looked for. We hypothesized that responses to stimuli would correlate with how similar they are to a sample stimulus. When animals compared two peripheral stimuli to a sample at their fovea, the response to the matching stimulus was similar, independent of the sample identity, but the response to the nonmatch depended on how similar it was to the sample: the more similar, the greater the response to the nonmatch stimulus. These results could not be explained by task difficulty or confidence. We propose that LIP uses its known mechanistic properties to integrate incoming visual information, including that from the ventral stream about object identity, to create a dynamic representation that is concise, low dimensional, and task relevant and that signifies the choice priorities in mental matching behavior. NEW & NOTEWORTHY Studies in object recognition have focused on the ventral stream, in which neurons respond as a function of how similar a stimulus is to their preferred stimulus, and on prefrontal cortex, where neurons indicate which stimulus is being looked for. We found that parietal area LIP uses its known mechanistic properties to form an intermediary representation in this process. This creates a perceptual similarity map that can be used to guide decisions in prefrontal areas.

scholarly journals LIP activity in the interstimulus interval of a change detection task biases the behavioral response

2015 ◽  
Vol 114 (5) ◽  
pp. 2637-2648 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fabrice Arcizet ◽  
Koorosh Mirpour ◽  
Daniel J. Foster ◽  
Caroline J. Charpentier ◽  
James W. Bisley
Keyword(s):  
Eye Movements ◽  
Change Detection ◽  
Behavioral Response ◽  
Interstimulus Interval ◽  
Detection Task ◽  
Covert Attention ◽  
Change Detection Task ◽  
Lateral Intraparietal Area ◽  
Overt Attention ◽  
The World

When looking around at the world, we can only attend to a limited number of locations. The lateral intraparietal area (LIP) is thought to play a role in guiding both covert attention and eye movements. In this study, we tested the involvement of LIP in both mechanisms with a change detection task. In the task, animals had to indicate whether an element changed during a blank in the trial by making a saccade to it. If no element changed, they had to maintain fixation. We examine how the animal's behavior is biased based on LIP activity prior to the presentation of the stimulus the animal must respond to. When the activity was high, the animal was more likely to make an eye movement toward the stimulus, even if there was no change; when the activity was low, the animal either had a slower reaction time or maintained fixation, even if a change occurred. We conclude that LIP activity is involved in both covert and overt attention, but when decisions about eye movements are to be made, this role takes precedence over guiding covert attention.

scholarly journals The lateral intraparietal area codes the location of saccade targets and not the dimension of the saccades that will be made to acquire them

2013 ◽  
Vol 109 (10) ◽  
pp. 2596-2605 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sara C. Steenrod ◽  
Matthew H. Phillips ◽  
Michael E. Goldberg
Keyword(s):  
Target Location ◽  
Rhesus Macaques ◽  
Oculomotor System ◽  
Saccade Target ◽  
Delayed Response ◽  
Lateral Intraparietal Area ◽  
Saccadic Adaptation ◽  
End Point ◽  
Priority Map ◽  
Response Task

Activity in the lateral intraparietal area (LIP) represents a priority map that can be used to direct attention and guide eye movements. However, it is not known whether this activity represents the location of saccade targets or the actual eye movement made to acquire them. We recorded single neurons from rhesus macaques ( Macaca mulatta) while they performed memory-guided delayed saccades to characterize the response profiles of LIP cells. We then separated the saccade target from the saccade end point by saccadic adaptation, a method that induces a change in the gain of the oculomotor system. We plotted LIP activity for all three epochs of the memory-guided delayed-response task (visual, delay period, and presaccadic responses) as a function of target location and saccade end point. We found that under saccadic adaptation the response profile for all three epochs was unchanged as a function of target location. We conclude that neurons in LIP reliably represent the locations of saccade targets, not the amplitude of the saccade required to acquire those targets. Although LIP transmits target information to the motor system, that information represents the location of the target and not the amplitude of the saccade that the monkey will make.

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