The linear vestibular-occular reflex (LVOR) provides unequaled opportunities to dissect sensory-motor integrative function, both at the behavioral and neurophysiologic level, because the system can be so radically modulated (e.g., reversals in direction) by easily controlled behavioral conditions (e.g., fixation distance and eccentricity). These attributes are exploited by cellular neurophysiologic studies which determine where along VOR neural circuits the specific modulations of reflex formation described above occur, and how and where different subsets of the VOR (i.e., AVOR driven by different canals, LVORs driven by different sets of otolith efferents and canal-otolith interactions) combine. Clearly, all sensory influences during eye movements must converge upon ocular motor neurons, the final neural output path to the muscles themselves, but interactions between different vestibular endorgans also occur in the vestibular neurons within VOR pathways. How complex are these interactions, what is their role, and what are the behavioral implications of the shared VOR elements? Do eye position signals, known to exist in vestibular nuclear neurons, provide a unique and necessary substrate for VOR modulation? If so, do they entail only conjugate signals, or do they include disconjugate or even monocular eye position information needed to generate the disconjugate VOR response observed occasionally? This project addresses these questions using single cell recording techniques in awake behaving monkeys. Attention will focus on VOR-related neurons in the vestibular nuclei, and on motor neurons and internuclear neurons in the abducens oculormotor nuclei.
| Rothkopf, Constantin A; Ballard, Dana H (2013) Modular inverse reinforcement learning for visuomotor behavior. Biol Cybern 107:477-90 |
| Fernandez, Roberto; Duffy, Charles J (2012) Early Alzheimer's disease blocks responses to accelerating self-movement. Neurobiol Aging 33:2551-60 |
| Velarde, Carla; Perelstein, Elizabeth; Ressmann, Wendy et al. (2012) Independent deficits of visual word and motion processing in aging and early Alzheimer's disease. J Alzheimers Dis 31:613-21 |
| Rothkopf, Constantin A; Ballard, Dana H (2010) Credit assignment in multiple goal embodied visuomotor behavior. Front Psychol 1:173 |
| Huxlin, Krystel R; Martin, Tim; Kelly, Kristin et al. (2009) Perceptual relearning of complex visual motion after V1 damage in humans. J Neurosci 29:3981-91 |
| Rothkopf, Constantin A; Ballard, Dana H (2009) Image statistics at the point of gaze during human navigation. Vis Neurosci 26:81-92 |
| Jovancevic-Misic, Jelena; Hayhoe, Mary (2009) Adaptive gaze control in natural environments. J Neurosci 29:6234-8 |
| Kavcic, Voyko; Ni, Hongyan; Zhu, Tong et al. (2008) White matter integrity linked to functional impairments in aging and early Alzheimer's disease. Alzheimers Dement 4:381-9 |
| Droll, Jason A; Hayhoe, Mary M; Triesch, Jochen et al. (2005) Task demands control acquisition and storage of visual information. J Exp Psychol Hum Percept Perform 31:1416-38 |
| Bayliss, Jessica D; Inverso, Samuel A; Tentler, Aleksey (2004) Changing the P300 brain computer interface. Cyberpsychol Behav 7:694-704 |
Showing the most recent 10 out of 28 publications
