The cortical control of visually guided saccadic eye movements involves of two major systems, the anterior and the posterior. The anterior system, comprised of the frontal eye fields (FEF) and the dorsomedial frontal cortex (DMFC), has direct access to brainstem oculomotor centers. The posterior system, comprised of several regions of the occipital and parietal cortices, does not appear to have direct access to the brainstem; for the most part it reaches these centers either through the superior colliculus or through the frontal lobe. The major focus of the proposed work is to understand the manner in which these two cortical systems control visually guided eye movements, how they differ from each other and how they interconnect. Behaving rhesus monkeys will be studied using recording, electrical microstimulation, reversible inactivation, and lesion methods. Part of the work will utilize chronic multiple single-cell recordings that will enable us to study neuronal properties over extended time periods to study organizational changes in individual neurons. We have devised an extensive battery of tests, some of them new, to study the visual and visuo-motor capacities of animals. One of these tests that utilizes dual targets presented with various temporal asynchronies. will be used to study the extinction phenomenon both in monkeys and patients with brain damage to the anterior and posterior eye-movement systems. The proposed research will increase our knowledge of the neural control of eye and limb movements and will allow us to compare these systems in monkeys and humans.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Eye Institute (NEI)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
5R01EY008502-12
Application #
6525081
Study Section
Visual Sciences B Study Section (VISB)
Program Officer
Hunter, Chyren
Project Start
1991-01-01
Project End
2005-02-28
Budget Start
2002-09-01
Budget End
2005-02-28
Support Year
12
Fiscal Year
2002
Total Cost
$243,313
Indirect Cost
Name
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Department
Internal Medicine/Medicine
Type
Schools of Arts and Sciences
DUNS #
City
Cambridge
State
MA
Country
United States
Zip Code
02139
Tehovnik, Edward J; Slocum, Warren M; Smirnakis, Stelios M et al. (2009) Microstimulation of visual cortex to restore vision. Prog Brain Res 175:347-75
Zhang, Ying; Schiller, Peter H (2008) The effect of overall stimulus velocity on motion parallax. Vis Neurosci 25:3-15
Schiller, Peter H; Slocum, Warren M; Weiner, Veronica S (2007) How the parallel channels of the retina contribute to depth processing. Eur J Neurosci 26:1307-21
Zhang, Ying; Weiner, Veronica S; Slocum, Warren M et al. (2007) Depth from shading and disparity in humans and monkeys. Vis Neurosci 24:207-15
Tehovnik, Edward J; Slocum, Warren M (2007) What delay fields tell us about striate cortex. J Neurophysiol 98:559-76
Chen, L Longtang; Tehovnik, Edward J (2007) Cortical control of eye and head movements: integration of movements and percepts. Eur J Neurosci 25:1253-64
Schiller, Peter H; Carvey, Christina E (2006) Demonstrations of spatiotemporal integration and what they tell us about the visual system. Perception 35:1521-55
Tehovnik, E J; Tolias, A S; Sultan, F et al. (2006) Direct and indirect activation of cortical neurons by electrical microstimulation. J Neurophysiol 96:512-21
Schiller, Peter H; Haushofer, Johannes (2005) What is the coordinate frame utilized for the generation of express saccades in monkeys? Exp Brain Res 167:178-86
Tehovnik, E J; Slocum, W M; Carvey, C E et al. (2005) Phosphene induction and the generation of saccadic eye movements by striate cortex. J Neurophysiol 93:1-19

Showing the most recent 10 out of 39 publications